Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days
by Densharr
Summary: Raven's been away for nearly three years... yet she's only lived a month of that time. How drastically have things changed? Eventual BBRae, major friendship!CyRae Updates Tuesdays
1. Part I

**2 Years, 9 Months and 4 Days**

Raven sighed as she rubbed her eyes. She had been studying with the famous Li Pai Long for just over a month. The infamous ancient Chinese sorcerer had been born in the Han Dynasty, and had survived by creating an artificial demiplane.

She had heard that Pai Long had collected texts from ancient Azarath, from a time before the Central Library had been purged of any texts deemed "evil" or "unnatural" by the administration. Her search had proven fruitful. She had found a handful of mental exercises meant to help re-enforce her emotional control. She was finally ready to return home, to Jump City to see her friends... no, her _family_.

"Master Pai Long, many thanks for allowing me to peruse your library. I can only hope that my own text of 'current' Azarathian history can be reasonable compensation. I now wish to return home – can you open the portal?"

"But of course, my dear. I'm surprised that you aren't staying longer, though. I have many more books, and most people tend to come here to start a new life."

"...What do you mean by that?"

"Goodness, you didn't know? I assumed everybody knew... at least, everybody who got the communication scroll."

"What are you talking about?"

"Raven, how do you think I've lived for nearly 1800 years?"

"A life-enhancing spell? Perhaps a deal with a higher power?"

"Well, a little bit of the former, admittedly. But spells of that sort cannot extend a lifespan that far beyond its limit. No, Raven, this demiplane is shifted out of the local space-time continuum."

Paling, Raven realises what the Master is trying to say. "So how long have I been here?"

"Hmmm..." Doing a series of quick calculations in his head the Master flicks his gaze to her uncertainly. "You've been here exactly 2 years, 9 months and 4 days as of two hours ago."

- - - oOo - - -

Fighting her stomach, Raven stumbled through the gate into the Commons room in the Tower. Or, rather, what _had_ been the communal room. Looking around, Raven could see clear signs that it was no longer a public area – most notably a pink bra strewn over the couch.

"...Hello? Anyone here?"

A blast of light whipped past her and before she could even begin to focus her powers a bookshelf toppled over behind her and fell on top of her.

"Vic? We've got an intruder in the living room. The voice sounded female, and I've got her pinned under bookshelf." Hearing a muffled yell though the wood and books surrounding her, Raven managed to hear a sounding of metal against the floor and a deep voice. After a moment's hesitation, the woman answered. "Yes, the one filled with your automotive books." The man was finally close enough to Raven so she could make out what he was saying.

"Alright, you get ready to blast them again, and I'll lift the 'shelf. You ready?" A heartbeat passed before bright light blinded Raven's eyes. The bookshelf nearly dropped again, however, as her 'saviour' finally caught a look at her. "Rae?"

"Cyborg? Why'd the other person call you Vic?"

"Never mind that, you're... wow, Raven. Damn. _Damn_." Raven suddenly found herself wrapped in a bone-crushing metallic hug. "We missed you, girl." She could feel the shoulder of her cloak grow slightly damped with tears before a feminine voice cleared her throat.

"You going to let me through anytime soon, Sparky?"

"Bee, good to see..." Raven trailed off as she saw not a tall African American standing behind Cyborg, but a slim sorceress with shocking pink hair. "Jinx?"

"I take it that you were expecting Karen?"

"Karen?"

"She means Bumblebee, Raven. But enough of that girl, tell us what the hell's been going on."

Cyborg gestured to the couch (after tactfully slipping Jinx's bra off the couch and onto the floor behind it), and the trio seated themselves on it, Raven to one side and Cyborg at the other, Jinx half draped over him. Raven got her first good look at the two in getting close to three years. _Of_ their _time. Azar, I'm going to give myself a headache._

Cyborg looked much the same – still bald, tall and muscular.

Jinx looked almost completely different, however. Truth be told, Raven had only recognized her because of her blaringly bright pink hair and catlike eyes. Instead of her old black and blue uniform, Jinx was wearing a long, flowing cerulean robe. Raven's eyes had barely skimmed over the ibindi/i between her eyebrows and fell straight to her protruding abdomen. "Jinx, you're-"

"Pregnant? Yeah. After a year, ol'Vic here proposed. With a little help from the scientists over at STARR Labs, we've got this little bundle of joy in the oven."

"So wait, you're MARRIED?"

"Yes. She's my wife, Raven. Now, enough distractions. Talk. Why are you not dead right now?"

Raven gave him the blankest stare that she could muster. "Excuse me? _Dead_?"

- - - oOo - - -

"Raven, what did you expect? You said that you'd be gone a month, _maybe_ a month and a half. We got concerned when you hit the two month mark. Nightwing finally admitted that he hadn't been able to sense you since you had left."

"Wait... Nightwing? Isn't that the name-"

"Yeah, it's the name he took in Warp's altered future that Star saw. Moving on... "

"Turns out that Master Pai Long's dimension, demi-plane, whatever it is, is shifted out of the normal space-time continuum."

"Umm... for the not science-y nerd type over here?"

"She means that it's slightly out of phase with our fourth dimension, while simultaneously occupying the previous three." Noticing his wife's blank look, he cringed for a second and lifted an arm to rub the back of his head while trying to look sheepish. "Sorry. It's affected by time differently than the rest of us. You imagine time as a river, right? Well, in this case, we're the river, and she was a fast current running alongside us. She got here, the same place we did, only taking a lot less time to do so."

"Thanks for that, Cyborg. But could you please catch me up on what I've missed? What did the Titans do when I never returned?"

"We basically freaked. I mean, you got Robin to call _Batman_. You of all people know just how peachy those two get along. Star managed to track down Herald to go looking for you, but there was something up with the dimension that you went to... he could find it, sure, but he couldn't get anything through. It must have been that time distortion that you mentioned. So about a month after that, Robin released a statement to the City about you taking a leave of absence for 'personal reasons'."

"But you assumed that I was dead."

"Well, yeah, in the Titans community, at least. But you know the public- they can't have one of their heroes dying on them. Star hated lying to the public about the truth, and I was divided. It was Robin's idea to say that you were gone for personal reasons. It was technically true, of course, but..."

"And how about Beast Boy? I'm sure that he missed his favourite target."

"...He probably took it harder than anyone else, Raven. Do you have any idea how long it took me and Star of drag him out of his funk?"

"He... he missed me? I was so sure that he didn't particularly like me."

"Missed you? Hells, Rae... you know how long it took him to get over Terra's betrayal?"

"Which one? But yes, I do. Two months or so, wasn't it? I remember you complaining for that long, anyways..."

"Let's put it this way - he didn't touch a Gamestation controller for more than isix months/i after your apparent death. IT took him even longer than that to recover into what we could recognise as our grass stain."

Raven opened her mouth to mouth to ask a question that she had wanted to ask for apparently nearly three years when she heard a pair of babies wailing through the tower.

"Dammit Vic, look what you've done. You've gone and woken up the twins." Jinx glared at her husband irately, nearly daring him to argue with her.

"Twins? But I assumed that this was your first..."

"Oh, it is our first. But we're not the first Titans to have a kid."

"So Robin... I mean Nightwing finally got up the courage to ask Starfire out? Good for him." Seeing the odd Look passing between the married couple, Raven wisely decided to let the matter rest. "So who are the parents, then?"

With a grin, Cyborg brought her towards the door. "Why don't you try and guess? If you get the answer right, I'll give you the low-down on what you've missed."

"And if I don't guess correctly?"

"Then you'll have to meet the team. Here's a hint – the twin's names are Oliver and Alice"

A/N: ...And I've returned from a stupidly long hiatus. Not actually as stupidly long as one might assume, given that I've been unfaithful (to , I mean).

Regardless, I've returned. Do not expect frequent updates, however. And I don't know if I'll even have the time to finish my A:tLA stories (though I AM trying – I just need to convince my gf to watch the series with me so I get re-inspired), considering how hard post-secondary i kicking my ass. But I'll at least TRY and make time for y'all, dammit.

As well, feel free to guess on the parents of these mysterious twins.


	2. Part II

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

As Raven entered the twin's room, she noticed the two beds sitting beside each other near the far wall. As the children got up, Raven couldn't help but notice their fine features, a blend of Irish and something that she couldn't _quite_ identify. As she saw their green eyes, she blanked completely.

"I give up Cyborg, I have no clue. And when were they born? They look quite old, for me to only have been gone not even three years."

"Heh. I can believe that you couldn't guess. Hell, we didn't know that the parents were even dating until they showed up at our doorstep, her four months pregnant."

Feeling her eyebrow begin to twitch, Raven let her frustration seep into her tone. "Cyborg, tell me who the parent s are _right now_, or I swear in Azar's name..."

"Why don't you ask them yourself? They're right behind you."

Whirling around, Raven wasn't sure who to expect, but it caught her by surprise none-the-less.

"...Speedy? And who's this?"

"Now there's a name that I haven't heard in a long time. I go by Arsenal now. So who would you be, little lady, to be calling me such an old name?" Walking over to her and lifting her chin, he looked into her eyes for a second before recognition dawned and he went as pale as a sheet and scrambled backwards. "Raven? You can't... you're... you're _dead_"

"Apparently, it's a good look for me." Raven smirked slightly. She had never thought that she'd see the normally unflappable archer like this, and it gave her a tingle of satisfaction to know that her mere presence was the cause.

"Roy! Get a hold of yourself." The exceedingly attractive Asian woman behind him smacked him in the head.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" Raven looked at the woman. There was the slightest hint of something familiar about her movements, but other than that, she could have been a stranger off the street.

"Sorry. My name's Jade... but you can call me Cheshire." Seeing the look of confusion that graced her features, Jade sighed and pulled a mask out from behind her. As she placed the mask upon her face, the green eyes and malevolent smile seemed to tug at her memory.

"You were in Paris! When we battled with the Brotherhood of Evil!"

"That's right. That's really the first time that you would have seen me, isn't it?"

"...You weren't fighting for our team, though, were you?"

To her surprise, both Arsenal and Cheshire blushed. The woman spoke up first, however, covering the redhead's mouth before he could speak. "I was... conflicted back then. I was, for all intents and purposes, a merc. I didn't care what the job was or who got hurt."

"And now you have kids together? How in the world did that happen?"

"That's a story for another day... Jesus, we have to tell the other Original Titans!"

"Arsenal, was it? What are you talking about? Aren't Starfire, Beast Boy and Nightwing here?"

At the mention of Nightwing's name, both of the heroes' faces darkened. "No, actually, they're not. Cyborg here is the last remaining Original Titan still to be based in good ol' Jump City."

"So you're the official leader of the Titans, Cyborg? How's that been?"

"Crazy. A little of this, a little of that. Well, this is the pretty much the whole crew here on the West Coast. How's about this – I'll let _you_ decide who to contact first – Nightwing, Starfire, or anyone you want."

"That sounds good, actually. I want you to call... Beast Boy."

Cyborg looked over to the purple haired sorceress in confusion for a second. _Huh... I totally thought that she'd want to talk to Nightwing first... I mean, they _used _to have that whole empathic bond thingy going on. Oh well._ They left the twin's room and walked down to the new Operations Room. It was a room in the sub-basement; the location had been chosen for its sturdiness, and had been further re-enforced.

A large screen cover most of the far wall, and there was a round table with six seats in front of it. There was the expected computer terminals scattered around the room, with a large, glowing computer mainframe embedded in the floor, creating a calming humming sound.

"Alright, now we'll call up B. JARVIS, connect me to Changeling's communicator."

A single electronic chirp was heard in response before a deep, accented voice rang through the room. "Right away, Master Stone"

As Raven heard the exchange, she lifted a single inquisitive eyebrow.

"Dammit Vic, didn't you tell her anything?" Jinx sighed before turning to Raven. "Beast Boy changed his name to Changeling, about what, a year ago?"

"Eighteen months. I remember because it was four months before I changed my name to Arsenal, and a month after the twin's birthday party."

"Thanks Roy. And JARVIS is the artificial intelligence that Vic spent a whole year designing. It basically runs the Tower."

"Sir, Master Logan's communicator appears to be non-operational or deactivated. Would you like to record a message to send to him as soon as I receive a signal from him?"

"Well Raven?"

"No, it's alright. But why would his communicator be deactivated?"

"Well... it's probably just dead. Out of juice and all that."

"But the batteries are ultracapacitors. Their charge literally lasts weeks. How could his die?"

"Probably have to do with the fact that he's in Arica half the time, and the other half of the time we have no idea where he is."

"Jade!"

"What, Jinxy? Afraid to tell her the truth?"

"Excuse me, but why is Beast B- I mean why is _Changeling_ in Africa?"

"Well... he lives there now."

"_What"_

"Yeah, he lives in Africa most of the time, Nightwing is about 1500 miles up the coast, and Star's in Russia."

"Russia?"

"She's up there with Red Star right now. Something about an army of radioactive sludge monsters? Less formidable than the one we fought, but there's a whole lot more of them. Worst part is that we have no idea where they're coming from."

"Cyborg?"

"Yeah Raven?"

"Call up Starfire."

"You got it. JARVIS? You heard the lady."

"Yes Master Stone. Shall I record the Miss Raven's voice in my pattern recognition database as an authorised user?"

"Yeah, go ahead and do that. If you ever need anything, Raven, just call up JARVIS. He's got full access to all the Tower systems, including criminal databases, newspaper archives and Tower Security."

"Hello friends!" Starfire's cheerful voice echoed though the room.

"JARVIS, go ahead and put her on the main screen, would you?"

"Of course, sir. Re-routing now."

Starfire's face appeared on the large view screen, her green eyes searching the room intently for who had called her. She looked much the same, like Cyborg, but there were subtle changes that Raven could see. Her face had lost the last traces of its childhood fat, leaving a strongly angled face. Her large, expressive eyes had gained a weight, as if they had endured a great hardship.

"Friends Cyborg and Jinx! And Friends Arsenal and Cheshire! To what can I thank this message for? Is it for the catching of up?"

Raven smirked as she noticed time had done little to improve her friend's English.

"Nah, Star. But someone popped in earlier today that we thought that you might want to see."

Starfire's eyes darkened slightly, and Raven noticed a hint of pain and anger floating in them. "Is is Nightwing? If it is, you may tell him that I am still not conversing with him until he stops being such a _clorbag valblernelk._

_Clorbag valblernelk? Why is she so mad at Nightwing?_

"Don't worry, Star. That jerk's not here. No, we got an old friend here."

_Cyborg too? What in Azar's name did you _do_?_ Raven stepped forwards out of the shadows, letting the light play over her dark blue cloak. Seeing Starfire tense up, she removed her hood and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Hello, Starfire"

A nearly ear-splitting shriek tore through the air. "Friend Raven! But did you not join X'Hal nearly three years ago?"

"It's been... an interesting time. Would you mind coming down here?"

"Not at all, Friend Raven. I shall return to the Tower within a few hours. You must tell me the story of how you... assaulted death?"

"Nay, comrade. The phrase is to 'beat' death. "

"Red Star?"

"Oh Raven! You have not yet truly met Boyfriend Leonid!"

"...Boyfriend?" It was all Raven could do to not let her jaw drop. _What_

"Oh yes! Leonid and I are quite happy together!" The communicator's camera zoomed out to show Starfire wearing a brown fur rimmed coat putting her arms around Red Star and squeezing. In his defence, he didn't even flinch at her super-strength. Raven remembered being impressed at his strength the last time they had met, and this was testament to it. "We shall arrive at the Tower soon, and I shall prepare the Pudding of Togetherness to celebrate your return!" At that, Starfire grabbed her boyfriend's hand as they lifted off from the ground.

- - - oOo - - -

Raven found herself meditating above the roof's surface a few hours later, just as their guests were due to arrive. Jinx was waiting on the roof with her, as Cheshire and the men had responded to an alert, something about Cinderblock escaping again. They had invited Raven to come with them, for old time's sake, but she had declined, preferring to be at the Tower when their guests arrived.

"Is that them there?"

Raven opened her eyes and saw a speck of black in the sky. As it approached, she could make out two separate people holding hands as they got closer. The smaller figure, obviously Starfire, disengaged from the larger figure and sped up. Clearly, Starfire was the faster flyer of the pair. It wasn't more than a moment before she felt slim arms wrapped around her in a bone-crushing hug.

"Friend Raven! You have been sorely missed!"

"I'd say that I missed you, except that I didn't. _I've_ only been gone for a month and a half."

"Perhaps your memory is missing, Friend?"

"It's not that Starfire... " Let's get you and your new boyfriend inside and I'll explain everything." _Again. Azar, maybe I should just make a recording so I don't have to repeat it every time we find another Original Titan..._

- - - oOo - - -

Later, Raven stood in the Operations Centre as Red Star and Starfire picked their jaws off the ground. Red Star just looked confused, while Starfire looked downright _interested_.

"Please, friend, do you know if this rip in the time-space continuum was of a mechanical or magical nature? If it is mechanical in nature, I would dearly love to talk to this Master Pai Long and discover its secrets."

"No, Star, he wouldn't know anything about machinery that advanced. Earth didn't develop advanced technology until fairly recently. Now, you've heard my story. Now I'd like to hear yours." Starfire smiled indulgently, preparing to launch herself into an epic tale of Red Star's success in wooing her. Her smile fell, however, at Raven's true question.

"What happened with Nightwing, and why are the Titans scattered all over the globe?"

A/N: Yes, JARVIS is pretty much identical to the one seen in the Iron Man movies (more notably the first). In this 'verse, Marvel is still comics. Cyborg named it JARVIS after he lost a bet with BB. And you begin to find out why the OT (Original Titans) aren't all in the Tower. Next chapter in a week or so.

In case you're wondering how they got there so fast from Russia, Star took him for a little sub-orbital flight at supersonic speeds over the North Pole. She can fly at FTL speeds, and we know that Red Star can survive space, so I figured that she'd help him along to get there faster. People always underestimate how smart Starfire is – she doesn't understand Earth idioms, and her syntax is broken half the time, but please remember her explaining the secrets behind FTL technology to Robin (in one of the earliest episodes, actually, so it's possible that she's been Flanderized)


	3. Part III

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

"_What happened with Nightwing, and why are the Titans scattered all over the globe?"_

Starfire's face froze at Raven's words. "Whatever do you mean, Friend Raven? The Titans have always had a global presence after we did the finding of the Honorary Titans."

"Dammit Starfire, you _know_ what I'm talking about. Why are we not together anymore? How did the Teen Titans fall apart like this?"

With a sigh, Starfire's shoulders fell. "Come with me, Friend, and I shall explain everything." As the other Titans protested, Starfire whipped around, eyes and hands glowing an unearthly green. "I will _not_ have Raven hear of all of your biases. Even though Friend Robin wounded me deeply, I shall try to give a clear photograph of the situation."

"...You mean a clear picture, right Star?" A *thumph* was heard as Cheshire slammed her hand onto the back of her lover's head. "What was that for, Chesy?"

"We all knew what she meant, Roy. Now let the ladies go and discuss things." Turning to the aforementioned girls, she tried to give them a sympathetic smile. "Don't judge him too badly, Raven. Remember who he was raised by."

With those ominous words ringing in her ears, Raven slipped along behind Starfire as they left for Starfire's loft in the Tower.

- - - oOo - - -

"So, why did you really take me aside?" Raven spun her friend around once they had arrived in her loft.

"Because, Friend Raven...There are things involved in the fight that the others may not know, and I do not wish to be the one to inform them."

"What do you mean by that, Starfire?"

"It began about a year after you left...

- - - oOo - - -

_Twenty One months beforehand..._

"Alright team, I think that it's time we really got down to this." Robin paced in front of the large vid screen in the Commons, overlooking the city for a brief instant before facing his team.

Moving his eyes over them, he saw the assembled youths. His team, his... _fami-_No. Maybe once, but no more. Batman had been very firm on this point when Robin had visited recently. Attachments only slowed you down.

Cyborg. The mechanical man who had proven his strength, courage and dependability through even the darkest of days.

Starfire. The beautiful alien who had captured his heart through her innocence and hopeful spirit.

Beast Boy. The irritating changeling who, despite Robin's best guesses, had actually proven himself an adequate teammate.

Speedy. The man who Robin would never have expected to join his team. Although a new teammate, his long range skills were proving an adequate substitute for loosing Raven.

...Raven. The person with whom he was closest, and subsequently, had to either learn to accept her loss, or bury the pain. He had never dealt with acceptance well.

Cheshire. He could see Speedy holding his arms around his pregnant girlfriend. They had come to the Tower, after Bumblebee had kicked them out in a fight that also ended her brief relationship with Cyborg after he had taken their side. In fact, Robin had nearly denied them access to the Tower, but the look on Cyborg's face hinted that if he did, then they wouldn't be the only ones walking away that day.

He had, of course, later torn Cyborg a new one in what he had thought was absolute privacy. But after Beast Boy had shifted from spider form and argued for Cyborg... things started to go downhill. Robin and Beast Boy had never been on the best of terms after the Beast Incident, as he liked to call it. He refused to believe that Beast Boy, the resident joker, could keep that... monster contained. He just didn't have the maturity or strength of will necessary to control his darker, more primal impulses.

Shaking his head to clear it from its temporary reverie, Robin looked over the expectant faces of his teammates. "I've called you all here to discuss a lingering issue. Now, I know that we've been doing well in out fight to protect the city. Villains are mostly contained, Slade hasn't appeared for years and the overall crime rate is down. But we still aren't prepared for the recent breakout of the Brotherhood of Evil. The Doom Patrol is woefully unprepar-"

"Excuse me?"

Robin looked at Beast Boy, a hint of suspicion in his eyes. "What's wrong, Beast Boy? Do you have something to add?"

"Dude, they're my family. Not only that, but they've had years of experience fighting the Brotherhood of Evil – experience that you can't discount."

"When did you learn the word 'discount', Beast Boy? Besides, it's clear that they aren't as equipped to deal with them as we are – they've spent years chasing them down, yet we managed to capture them within a single year."

"Don't insult them, Robin. You're making this personal." Beast Boy stood up and pointed his finger at Robin angrily.

"And if I am?"

"Then I'll-"

"Don't. Stop it, both of you." Cyborg's large hands rested on both of the males shoulders. Robin leaned against the hand, itching for the fight, while Beast boy had bared his fangs, growling quietly under his breath. Dropping his shoulders, Beast Boy blew a short blast of air from his nose and then stalked off to the back of the couch before jumping into a crouch on the back.

_That's right you backed down. I'm the team leader here_. Robin smirked as he saw his opponent walk away. "Alright team, as I was saying, we're not ready for the Brotherhood if they decide to come back here for vengeance. We're down a man, here."

"Ummm, hello? Speedy here. What am I, pickled sardines?" Robin could see Beast Boy trying to control his gag reflex while Cyborg smothered a chuckle. Cheshire rolled her eyes, while Star seemed confused.

"Speedy, I am counting you. But no matter how good you are with a bow, you don't have telekinesis. You don't have anything that can really give us the drop on opponents like Rave-"

"Stop it. You're not going to replace her."

"Beast Boy, enough is enough. It's been a year – she's not coming back."

Beast Boy walked up to Robin and shoved him up against the wall. Shocked, Robin didn't even think to react. He had _never_ acted like this towards him, not since the episode with the Beast. "Let's get one thing straight, _Bird Boy_. We. Are. NOT. Replacing her. Got it? Good." His piece said, Beast Boy walked away, flexing his fingers. The others stood in shock at what had just happened. Starfire looked over the group sadly before sparing a tear for her green friend.

_He's still not over her..._

- - - oOo - - -

"Wait, what do you mean 'not over her'? Are you talking about Terra? What on Earth does she have to do with this?"

"Friend Raven... Beast Boy never truly loved Terra."

"What are you talking about? She was his whole world!"

"No, Friend." Starfire laid her hand on Raven's shoulder, shaking her head slowly. "Do you wish for me to continue?"

- - - oOo - - -

_Twenty One months previous (cont.) _

Robin had ignored his green teammate's dire warnings, and had gone ahead and announced auditions for a spot in the Original Titans. There had been more than a few people vying for the spot, including Hotspot, Red Star, Argent and Jinx.

Robin had dismissed Hotspot out of hand – he was a wild card, and considering how he had to deal with an increasingly moody shapeshifter... he didn't have the time or energy to waste bringing both in line.

He didn't trust Jinx's criminal past – although Kid Flash had somehow reformed her, after he had dumped her she had blurred the lines between hero, villain and vigilante. Another liability that he couldn't afford, and she didn't have pregnancy nor Cyborg on her side (although he _had_ looked hopeful at the prospect of her joining...) like Cheshire had had.

Red Star... Red Star would have been a good fit. He was once part of the army, so he had not only professionalism, but a strict discipline that Robin could appreciate. After staying at the Tower for a few days, though, Red Star had declined Robin's offer, stating that if he was to join a team, he would choose one that wasn't coming apart at the seams. Robin couldn't understand what he meant by that for the life of him, so he ignored it. Red Star had been getting a little too close to Starfire as well, so it was just as well.

So he was left with Argent. She was, admittedly, a good fit, at least power-wise. Her powers were similar to the infamous Green Lantern Brigade, and both her and their adaptability was highly useful to say the least. Although she wasn't a telepath nor empath, Robin was sure that he could pick up some of the slack, with Cyborg's help.

"So, Argent. Congratulations. You've been selected from our pool of potential applicants to become the next Titan."

Argent looked around, seeing not a single other applicant left. "Er.. thanks, bro?"

Robin cringed slightly at the New Zealander's accent, reassuring himself that he'd get used to it in time. Forcing a smile onto his face, he extended his arm and handed her an official Titans communicator. It was similar to the Honorary Titans communicator, except that it had more functions and increased durability.

Seeing the communicator, an honest smile passed over the goth's lips as she received the device. Robin's heart lightened as he saw her smile, and he could finally reassure himself. _This is really going to work._

- - - oOo - - -

It had been three months since Argent had joined the Titans, and the situation had gone from bad to worse. It wasn't Argent's fault, however – in fact, she had been doing extremely well. She had successfully bonded with Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and even with Beast Boy, to a degree.

The problem was with Beast Boy. He never out and said it, but there was always a sort of tension between him and Argent. They both knew that it wasn't Argent's fault, but Beast Boy couldn't seem to dispel the slightest hint of resentment that always rang between him and the gothic islander.

The tension between them was nothing compared to the tension between the Boy Blunder and the green changeling, however. Robin's opinion of Beast Boy seemed to lessen with each successful mission that the Titans completed. At first, it was minor stuff. Not congratulating Beast Boy on a job well done, merely nodding his head firmly in place or 'accidentally forgetting' to invite him to planning sessions.

Beast Boy's powers had also started to evolve again, causing more problems and reasons for the two to fight. He became increasingly aggressive in battle, and had started to question his orders. More disturbing to Robin, however, was Beast Boy's eyes. Where before they had been shining green and carefree, now they where a golden yellow with mere slits for pupils, looking much like a predatory cat's. Robin grew more wary around him even in public – he always seemed to keep at least one teammate between them, always having a quick excuse as to why.

Eventually Robin didn't even bother with the courtesies. The nods faded, apologies for forgetting to invite him to strategy sessions ceased, and excuses for not being near him dwindled. Of course, this cause even more friction between the two when Robin's plans failed on account of Beast Boy not knowing what was going on. It was a vicious cycle, one that was doomed to explode sooner or later.

The end came three months after Argent had joined them. It had been a typical battle against Mumbo Jumbo, with the usual insults. Names like 'Garbage Can', 'Sixty to Zero' and 'Robin's little pet'. After a lucky shot by Speedy took out Mumbo's hat, Cyborg quickly made his way over and ended the magician's show.

"What the hell was that, Beast _Boy_? You could have had Mumbo five minutes ago! You were right behind him, and he wasn't even looking at you. Why didn't you do anything?"

"Because, Boy Blunder, if I had, things would have gotten worse."

"Oh really? I don't see how that's possible. Because of those five extra minutes, here's what you cost the team – seventeen of Speedy's arrows; including three specialty ones, parts for a new _hand_ for Cyborg, and how about the manpower hours that Star's going to be out of commission for?"

"Boyfriend Robin, I am fine. Truly. My kind are most resilient to damage." Starfire winced as she put weight on her leg, and she knew it was a mistake as soon as she saw a dark look pass over Robin's face.

"See what you've done now? Hell, I don't even know why I keep you around. We don't need you."

"Rob, man, don't go there..."

"Cyborg, please just be quiet. He needs to hear this."

"What do I need to hear, Bird Boy?"

Robin slammed his _bo_ staff down on the ground beside Beast Boy, startling him. Clenching his fists in anger, Robin started to yell out in anger. "You need to hear the_ truth, _freak!"


	4. Part IV

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

Instead of the outburst that Robin expected from the changeling, he felt a chill run down his spine as Beast Boy's eyes turned glacial cold.

"You didn't just call me that."

"What, so your stupid pointy ears can't hear me?"

"No, I'm saying that I hope that you didn't just say that."

"Say what, calling you a freak? Think about it – you _are_. I mean, you've got pointy ears, fangs, and you're _green_, for godsakes! The only other green superhero is J'onn, and he's got the excuse of coming from another planet!"

Beast Boy couldn't old himself back any longer. With an animalistic roar ripping its way free from his throat, he pounced on Robin like a lion pounces an impala. Robin barely managed to deflect the blow off to the side with his _bo_ staff. The blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon, however, he couldn't deflect.

Argent watched in shock as the team started to tear itself apart. She knew this moment had been coming for months, now, but it surprised her that Robin would do it in public. With a sigh, she encased Beast Boy and Cyborg in an opaque vermillion sphere and lifted them into the air, ignoring the muffled cries of anger coming from its contents.

"Thanks Argent."

"Don't be thanking me, bro. This is only so you don't get your ass handed to you in public.

"...What? Don't be ridiculous. I can take anyone on this team. It's the reason I'm the leader."

"You can, can you?"

"Without a dou-" Robin suddenly found himself suspended in the same bubble that the others had been encased in. "Dammit Argent, I _order_ you to let me out of this damn thing!"

"Not until we've hit the Tower. There, you can tear each other to pieces where the public doesn't have to watch."

Stafire slowly walked over to where Argent was trying to simultaneously suspend the two spheres.

"May I accompany you back to the Tower, Friend Argent? I'm afraid I am not sufficiently happy to summon the power of flight..."

With a sympathetic nod, Argent managed to fuse the two spheres with one hand while keeping the contents separate. With her other hand, she summoned a crimson platform for her and Starfire to ride on.

Coming around the corner, Speedy announced to his companions that Mumbo was now in JCPD custody. As he saw his teammates fly away, one thought struck him.

_Hells. Now I have to _walk_ back to the Tower._

- - - oOo - - -

Argent dropped the boys off in the Training Room before taking shelter in a red bunker-like structure, prepared to step in if things got too far out of hand. Starfire was sitting despondent in a corner, mulling over possible futures.

"Is it possible that the future truly is unalterable? Even though I returned to my proper time, _Rekma_ is still occurring..."

"It ain't your fault, bro. By the look and sounds of it, this has been a long time brewing..." The girls looked over at the boys, seeing a caped figure squaring off against the large and smaller figures.

"Cyborg, admit it – Beast Boy has become a danger to this team! He's not following orders, he's not dispatching the villains as fast as he's able... hell, I'm even starting to question his dedication to the team!"

"Robin, leave Cyborg out of this. This is between you and me. "

"B, did you hear what he call-"

"Shut up, Cyborg. He's right, for once. This is between us."

"Don't tell him to shut up!"

"Thanks B."

"This still isn't your fight. And I'm not going to involve you. This is something that me and Bird Brain over here need to get out."

"Bird Brain? Very creative."

"Whatever. So what's the great truth, O Mighty Leader?"

"I was trying to spare your feelings, Beast Boy, but not it looks like I shouldn't have. We don't need you, at least not anymore, Beast Boy. Hells, we may never have needed you"

Even though Beast Boy had had a sneaking suspicion about what he'd say, the words still struck him to his core. "Wh- What? How can you say that!" Feeling his anger surge anew at the other's sheer gall, Beast Boy valiantly tried to defend himself. "That's bullshit! You guys need me around, I'm a Titan! Who else helps Starfire understand English? Kicks Cyborg's butt in Mega Monkeys? Provides plucky comic relief? I mean Jesus, I even saved your butts and led the remaining Titans to save you from the Brotherhood after we followed _your_ plan to separate, against my direct advice? Me, who's spent _years_ fighting them?"

Robin's face had darkened considerably. Even Cyborg was getting a little nervous, slowly stepping back from the duelling opponents.

"You really want to know, Beast Boy? Both Argent and Cheshire take time out of their days to spend time with Star. I'm a better Mega Monkeys player than you are, and Speedy's as good as Cyborg is. You don't even have a high score! And we both know that the Justice League showed up in Paris twenty minutes after we froze the Brain, so we would have been rescued anyways. Face it, we don't need you." Robin flicked his cape over his shoulder and began to walk away. He paused for a second before a sardonic grin passed over his face. "Oh, and Beast Boy? You're not funny."

"Rob, man... you don't mean all that."

"Oh, Cyborg, I do." Robin stopped walking away and leaned on a nearby pillar. "And here's the best part – it's all true. And I'm not even counting the worst incident, yet."

"Robin, don't say it..."

"Hey _Beast_ Boy, how are you holding up? Getting a little _angry_? I know what'll cheer you right up: maybe Adonis will escape again and you two can go and screw like the monkeys you ar-"

Robin found himself pushed up against the pillar by his throat, a furious Beat Boy holding his feet a good three inches above the ground. _Holy shit, Batman. Where the hell did he come from? I didn't even see him _move...

"You're bringing that up now? The time that you not only showed how little you actually trust me, but then hunted me down like some sort of wild animal?"

"Who's saying you're not?" Robin managed to gasp out.

A cold silence descended onto the room. Starfire and Argent both held their hands over their mouths, shocked at what they had just heard. Cyborg's systems had momentarily stalled as he tried to process what had just been said. _I mean, I know that there was bad blood between the two of them... but this is so much worse than I ever thought possible_.

Beast Boy glared at Robin for a long, hard moment before tossing him aside like a ragdoll. Robin flew a full twenty feet before he hit a wall and slumped over, hold his right side. "You know what, Bird Brain?"

Robin managed to bark out a harsh "what". It was obvious that he was in a great deal of pain.

"You might be right." With a final rumbling growl, he threw his Titans communicator onto the ground and watched it smash on the ground. As soon as the final piece stopped rolling, he turned away from the group. "Don't look for me" he called right before he shifted into a rhinoceros and bulled through the window. Cyborg and the girls ran to the shattered pane, only to recoil in surprise a scaly winged form rushed straight up in front of the window. They stood in shock as the green pterosaur flew off into the sunset.

They heard the doors hiss open and saw Speedy holding Cheshire close, whispering something into her ear. Noticing the condition of the room, he looked at the assembled Titans and asked the question that was on both his and his girlfriends' minds.

"Okay, what the HELL happened here?"

- - - oOo - - -

Starfire's story was interrupted by the warning klaxon. Cyborg's voice crackled out over the tower intercom.

"Titans, Ops!"

A scarce minute or two later, Raven found herself in the Operations Room again, this time accompanied by Cyborg, Arsenal, Cheshire, Starfire, Red Star and the pregnant Jinx. Raven shot Cyborg an odd look as he waved his hand over the table, but was shocked when a glowing blue three dimensional representation of the city hovered a mere inch above the table surface.

"JARVIS, report."

"Master Stone, the Fukimishi Advanced Electronics warehouse is under attack. Their security forces are holding the line for now, but they are being pushed steadily back."

"Fukimishi... They specialize in nanotechnology. More specifically, in military stealth operation capabilities."

"Thanks Cheshire. Any idea what we're up against, JARVIS?"

"Unfortunately not, sir. They appear to be jamming me using a rotating frequency EM device. It doesn't stay on a single frequency long enough for me to compensate."

"Alright, we're heading into this one blind, then. Cheshire, Star, Raven; you're with me. We'll head straight to the warehouses and protect those components. Arsenal, take Red and go to the Administrative Offices in Downtown. See if you can get any intel on what's in there, and keep an eye on everyone there. My gut's telling me that this is an inside job. Jinx..."

"I know. They'll be safe."

"Thanks." Cyborg's hands graze over his wife's, momentarily gripping her delicate hand before releasing her and running off to the garage to his precious T-Car, Cheshire following close behind. Raven started towards the window behind Starfire, before reconsidering and teleporting to the garage.

Cyborg was momentarily surprised in seeing her there, but he shook it off as he climbed into the driver's seat. Raven made to enter the passenger seat, but the back door flew open and Cheshire dragged her into the back.

"I can tell that you're curious about what Jinx is doing, Raven."

"I'll admit that I am, Cheshire. If we're going into this blind, shouldn't we bring every available Titan?"

"That's an excellent point... except for two details."

"Oh?"

"Well, the first being obvious. Raven, Jinx is his _wife_, who's _pregnant_. Do you honestly think that Cyborg would want her facing an unknown enemy? She argues, of course, but she'll almost always give in. The second is, unfortunately, a much sadder one."

"What happened?"

Raven was surprised to hear a sniffle coming from beside her. Raven couldn't see anything because of the mask covering her face, but Raven could sense the emotions coming off of the slight Vietnamese woman. A mix of turmoil, pain, sadness and anger.

"...Cyborg?"

"About six months ago, we responded to three distress calls at the same time. Me and Jinx went to Jump City Memorial Bridge to fight Cinderblock, Arsenal went to the First National Bank to fight off Dr. Light while Cheshire went to deal with Johnny Rancid, who had been terrorising the Zoo. As we were all out fighting... Brother Blood came to the Tower and kidnapped the twins."

"No..."

"Yeah. Something about the superior physical states of the parents making them the perfect bases for his new clone army. Suffice to say, we took him down. But ever since then, we've always left at least a single Titan behind to defend the Tower, just in case."

A moment more was spent in silence as Cyborg drew closer to their destination. A heartbeat later, Starfire flew across their field of vision and collided with a nearby warehouse, crumbling the wall and falling inside. As Raven rushed to her side, she could hear Cyborg's voice calling out behind her.

"Titans, move!"

Raven crouched near the downed princess and concentrated on the healing light emanating from her hands. "Starfire! Can you hear me?"

"Friend Raven... I believe that I should not have tried to defeat Chargestone by myself."

"Chargestone?"

Starfire weakly raised her arm and pointed towards the direction that she'd originated. Raven swung her face around and the sight that met her eyes shocked even her. "Is that Cinderblock's... progeny?"

The figure must have been nearly twelve feet tall. It seemed to be made of stone, with bright, nearly blue-white markings etched onto its surface. Sizzling bolts of lightning jumped between the traceries as it flexed its arms. As it turned, Raven could see that where its eyes should be, there were instead twin pools of the same blue-white light. It opened its mouth to issue a roar of challenge at her, and she was surprised to see a build-up of light in its open mouth.

"Raven! Move!" Cyborg's voice blew through her interest and she grabbed Starfire and teleported them back to behind the T-Car. Peeking out from behind the vehicle, she was shocked to see a massive blast of lightning burst from the construct's mouth and blow a smoking crater into the space that she had previously occupied, along with Starfire.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Raven muttered under her breath as she flew over to Cyborg's side.

"Cheshire! You get his attention; I'll blast him from here!" Cyborg yelled an order at the younger woman, before she gave him a single nod. Chargestone took a swing at the clever cat before she slipped beneath his arm and gave a short laugh as he got his hand stuck in a wall. Running up the wall for a handful of steps, she leapt from the wall onto his arm. Dropping her claws into her hands, she ran up his arm, claws trailing sparks as they scraped along its stone-like hide. With a quick flip, she landed on his shoulders, head between her legs, and tried to slash at its eyes. The monolithic villain raised his arms, trying to swat her away, but the nimble assassin proved to be far too agile. She cocked her head for a second, and leapt onto the room of a nearby building.

A second later, a beam of blue shattered the tense air as it ploughed into Chargestone, literally lifting it off its feet and sending it crashing through the wall of a nearby warehouse.

"Titans! Let's go!" Cyborg cried as he charged straight into the warehouse, jumping over the scattered blocks of cement and drywall. Cheshire beckoned to her as she nimbly leapt from piece to piece, never hesitating even when a piece collapsed beneath her. Raven gathered her cloak and flew in behind them, not wanting to be caught unawares if it breathed another fork of lightning.

She arrived on the scene to see Cyborg pummelling it with his fists, not even bothering with his sonic cannon. Tiny arcs of sparks connected the two fighters as Cyborg's systems channelled the extra power into his drive systems, giving his punches more power. Cheshire ran distraction, cutting support beams overhead to fall on top of it. Raven decided that she had had enough of sitting docile.

"Azarath Metrion _Zinthos_!" With a surge of dark energy, a host of tentacles appeared from Chargestone's shadow and completely trapped it. "If you want to finish it, Cyborg, _now_ would be the time. I can't exactly hold it forever..."

With a nod, Cyborg shifted his hand into a modified sonic cannon. With a slight jerk of his arm, a small module shot from the cannon and embedded itself in the ground. A long cable ran from it back into Cyborg's body, and Cyborg slammed the construct with all his strength with the other. Chargestone teetered on its feet for a second before it fell flat on its back. Raven recited her mantra, adjusting the tentacles to hold it in its new position firmly while Cyborg jumped onto its chest. Cyborg's other hand seemed to open slightly, with a glowing blue circle in the middle of his palm. Chargestone seemed to grow frantic at the sight of it, struggling harder against its bonds.

Allowing a smirk to grow on his face, Cyborg crouched on one knee on the heaving stone. "Lights out, Chargestone." With that, he slammed his palm down into the middle of its chest. An almost unholy scream wrenched its way free of the golem's throat as the light pouring from its eyes, mouth and traceries tripled instantaneously. Blue tongues of electricity raced their way up Cyborg's arm, past the grimace on his face and travelled down his cabled arm, grounding itself in the earth. After a few heartbeats, the glow on both combatants faded until only the barest hint of blue could be seen along its body.

Cyborg lifted his smoking hand as he retracted the grounding cable and looked down at the defeated villain. With a smirk on his face, he hefted his hand, converting it to a sonic cannon before restoring it to its default hand configuration.

"Booyah."


	5. Part V

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

It was just over an hour later that the Titans reconvened in the Tower. Although they had stopped Chargestone, it turns out that in the confusion, a container of nanobots had been lifted from the warehouse. Talking to the resident techs, they discovered that these specific nanobots were part of Project: Setting Sun. The project's goal was countering terrorist's electronics; Spray the nanobots on a single terrorist and let him free, letting him return to his cell. Once there, the nanobots would infiltrate the electronic systems and not only give the location, but also shut down all computer/electronic functions, from laptops to advanced targeting systems.

Arsenal and Red Star hadn't gotten any useful information from the staff at the Fukimishi offices, although they had obtained a list of recently fired and disgruntled former employees. Cyborg had entered the names into JARVIS and was waiting for the supercomputer to track down electronic records to find all of them.

"Master Stone, I have finished my analysis of the list you gave me."

"Alright, hit me. What do you have?"

"The majority of the recently fired employees received generous compensation packages and excellent referral notices. There are three others in particular that caught my attention, however."

"What do you mean?"

"Two have filed civil suits against Fukimishi Electronics for Unlawful Termination and the third tried to organise a protest, Miss Raven."

"Names? Specialisations? Locations?"

"One Hikaru Li, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from MIT. Filed his civil suit three months ago. Currently residing in Jump City, Market District. Our next suspect is Ellen Brunner. She's a Swedish immigrant to our fair city, with a degree in Computer Science from Lund University. Also currently residing in Jump City, in Evergreen Terrace."

"And the third?"

"James Masters. He has a degree in Molecular Nanotechnology. He was supposedly fired for gross incompetence and breaking patent laws. James was the one who organized the protest, sir."

"Sounds like out guy, but we'll check out the other two leads afterwards. What part of Jump is he hiding in, JARVIS?"

"I'm sorry to inform you that he does not live in the greater Jump City area, sir. Records indicate that he is currently living in Miros."

Raven was surprised to see everyone in the room mutter a curse at the name. "Cyborg? What's so bad about Miros? From what I recall, it's a fairly decent city as far as cities go. Starting to have a super villain problem, though, so we'd contemplated setting up a Titans North there. What's happened?"

"Oh, it doesn't need a _team_ there. It's got its protector. But therein lays the problem."

"What do you mean?"

This time is was Starfire who stepped forward. "Nightwing is the protector of Miros, Friend Raven."

"Well, looks like you'll get to see Nights before you get to see Changeling, Raven." Arsenal chanced a look around. "I guess that me, Jinx and Ches can take care of Jump, along with anyone else who wants to stick around."

"Actually, comrades, Starfire and I should be heading back to Russia"

Raven looked over in shock towards the super-powered couple; waves of downright _gratefulness_ seeped from Starfire as she squeezed Red Star's hand.

"The radioactives will not stop their attacks just because we've taken a break. Raven, it has been nice to make your acquaintance once more." Red Star shook Raven's hand before turning away and embracing Cyborg. Arsenal grabbed his forearm in a warrior's handshake, while Cheshire merely nodded serenely.

The look in Starfire's eyes pleaded for Raven not to argue with their decision. Raven eventually relented, and Starfire threw her arms around her in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, Friend Raven, we shall have to meet again once we have kicked the butt of these radioactive creatures. Then we will engage in the talk of girls. I have _much_ to discuss with you."

Red Star had the good grace to look slightly sheepish as Arsenal slapped him on the back. "Atta boy, Big Red." Starfire gave all her friends lung-crushing hugs before she grabbed Red Star's hand and they left for her loft to grab her jacket before they left.

Cyborg turned to Raven. "Guess it's just you and me, then. You up for our field trip?" As Raven nodded her assent, Cyborg grew a small grin. "Let's go visit Nightwing, then."

- - - oOo - - -

Raven looked around her as she examined the ship. After the loss of the T-Ship more than a year ago, the Justice League had given the Teen Titans the usage of one of their Javelins. Cyborg had reluctantly accepted, knowing that part of the reason was so that J'onn could keep an eye on them. But since they had only four members, the five-part steering systems control design wouldn't work. Besides, Cyborg had wanted to take a look at Justice League tech for a number of months.

"So what can you tell me about... Nightwing and Miros? Has a lot changed in the past few years?"

"Not as much as Jump's changed. Miros is pretty much the same, and Nightwing... well, he's Nightwing."

"You know, Starfire never did tell finish telling me about Nightwing. When did he change his handle from Robin? Better yet, why is he in Miros instead of Jump with the team?"

Cyborg stared ahead stoically for a moment before he sighed. "I'm going to have to tell you, aren't I? How much did Starfire manage to tell you before Chargestone interrupted?"

"She got as far as Beast Boy leaving."

"Thank god... I don't want to have to relive that again. Well, right after that..."

- - - oOo - - -

_Eighteen Months ago..._

The remaining Titans had reconvened in the Commons. Speedy, Cheshire, Argent and Starfire were all sitting on the couch, while Cyborg leaned on a nearby wall and iglared/i at Robin, who had been pacing in front of the couch for a good five minutes.

"Is anybody going to say something, or what?" Speedy demanded, finally losing patience with the whole situation.

"How 'bout we start at the part where the Boy Blunder here told Beat Boy that we didn't need him."

"You didn't. Please tell me that Cyborg is exaggerating, Robin."

"Of course he's exaggerating, Cheshire. I didn't say anything close to that."

"Oh yeah?" Cyborg challenged, shaking his fist at the leader. "Then what do you call... _this?_ Cyborg pressed a sequence of buttons on his forearm, and a tinny voice rang out. It was a heartbeat before everybody recognised it as Robins'. Robin felt a chill run down his spines as he heard the fateful words.

"_I was trying to spare your feelings, Beast Boy, but not it looks like I shouldn't have. We don't need you, at least not anymore, Beast Boy. Hells, we may never have needed you."_

A moment of silence was observed for their missing comrade. It was, as usual, Speedy who broke the silence.

"Dude... that's cold."

"Agreed." Cheshire got up and slapped Robin across the face. Staggered, Robin took a step back as he looked onto the diminutive woman in shock.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Can you really not tell? You all but murdered your friend's, your blade brother's, character to his face and you expected him to take it? I've seen you Robin; don't think I haven't. One thing you learn in my line of work is observation – I'm sure Batman taught you all about that. I've seen the way that you treat him, and I'm frankly surprised that he didn't act out sooner."

"I'm the leader!"

"Yes, exactly. Our leader, _not_ our dictator. If this is how you treat those under your command, perhaps it is time for a... new hand on the wheel?"

"...Is this a mutiny?"

"In a way it is, Robin, but in another, it isn't". Robin turned to see Cyborg standing next to Cheshire. Argent floated off of the couch, away from comforting the sobbing Starfire, and assumed a position to Cheshire's other side. "We've been talking amongst ourselves, and we've given you the past three months to change your act. You've been increasing cold and distant, not to mention overly harsh to BB. You still haven't cleaned up your act – in fact, you've gotten worst. You chased away a teammate, man, one of the _founding Titans_. He didn't give up when we thought we lost you to Slade, and he certainly didn't give up when the world almost ended. But you Robin... _you_ made him give up."

"I... but... He was holding us back! He refused to accept the fact that change is inevitable! We needed to fill Raven's spot, just as he needed to learn to better obey orders! You can't blame this on me!"

"Problem is, bro... we are." Robin turned to the New Zealander in shock. "The Robin that I met, that I fought with in Paris would never have treated his supposed friends like you've been doing."

"Why you-"

"Enough, man. We're going to have to ask you to leave the room for a few minutes."

The Boy Wonder looked at the mechanical man with a look of slowly dawning horror. "Wh-why do you need me to leave?"

Cyborg returned the look with a saddened, resigned look. "Because we, the rest of the Titans, need to consider the status of your future with us."

"What?" The look of dawning horror had realised into a mix of fully fledged terror and anger. Argent started him hedging him towards the door. As she slowly forced him out of the door, she leaned on the door frame.

"By the time that this door opens again, bro, we'll be able to tell you if you're still a Titan." Argent then sealed the door on his face.

- - - oOo - - -

Robin paced nervously outside the door. He had tried to open it, first by trying the door panel, then manually. Neither had worked, so he had tried his personal vocal override. It was designed to open any door under any circumstance, so he was understandably frustrated when it failed. _Dammit Cyborg, can't you build something that works for..._ He cursed as he realised that since Cyborg had designed it, it made sense that he could disable it as well.

The door hissed open a little over two hours later and a haggard looking Cyborg called Robin in. Robin entered the room to see the other five titans arrayed around him like a mob. Cheshire and Argent looked vaguely angry, while Speedy and Cyborg seemed resigned, yet Cyborg had a spark of happiness deep in his eye. Starfire... she looked destroyed. She hadn't looked that sad since... since she'd almost been forced to marry that blobby thing.

"We've come to a decision, Robin."

A moment of pregnant silence filled the air as Robin waited for Cyborg to speak. "What is it, Cyborg? You guys are killing me here."

"Robin... Your formal membership in the Titans has been suspended immediately-"

"What? How could you guys do this to-"

"-Pending your return."

"...My return? From where?"

"Bro, we decided that since it's your fault that Beast Boy ran off, you've been removed from the permanent roster and placed on reserve as an Honorary Titan until you return with Beast Boy."

"But he can't stand being anywhere near me! I'll never be able to get him to come back as long as I'm going to be here!"

"Not our problem, Robin". Robin turned to Cheshire, and saw that she was wearing a cheshire grin... _without_ wearing her mask. "I find the sentence to be rather... poetic, don't you?"

"You... you can't do this! I'm a Titan! I'm _the_ Titan! Without me, you all would be _nothing_! You _need_ me. "

"Actually Rob... so long as you're acting like a complete jerk, we _don't_. Come back with B, and you'll be welcomed with open arms. You have the week to prepare. I wouldn't take the entire week, though – B can _move_ when he feels like he has to."

"Argh!" Disgusted, Robin threw his hands into the air as he stomped out of the room. Starfire made to follow him, but Cyborg grabbed her arm.

"Star... don't. He needs to do this."

"But Friend Cyborg... Can you not see that Friend Robin is hurting?"

"I know he is, Star... but he forced Beast Boy to leave. _Beast Boy_. The guy put up with everybody teasing him for years, took all the abuse from civilians about him being green, all the flea collars and registration papers that people sent him... and he persevered. Because he had us, Starfire. His family. But Robin... he shattered that. I'm not going to say Robin wanted to make B leave, but he did."

"But surely if Friend Robin did not want to make Friend Beast Boy leave-"

"You may not have noticed, but Robin hasn't said anything about regretting chasing B Boy away. We've let Robin get away with too much in the past – His Slade obsession, his recklessness, _Red X_... it's time he learnt that some things, a man's gotta fix by himself."

Starfire looked mournfully at the door that Robin had exited, and prayed to X'Hal that he would soon return with Friend Beast Boy.

- - - oOo - - -

_Present..._

"Wow... did you really make him chase after Beas- I mean, after Changeling?"

"You really doubting me? We waited six months to hear from Robin, waiting for a status update or even a hello. Nothing. A month after that, we hear of a new hero in Miros calling himself Nightwing. Me and Star went to check it out, but when we finally tracked him down, he pretended to not know who we were."

"But everyone's heard of the Titans."

"Well, he 'knew' who we were, but he pretended as though that was it – that we weren't friends, or anything. Like it was the first time that we met. Suffice to say, Starfire was destroyed. We'd catch her in his room randomly, just sitting there, sobbing. There was just too many memories of Robin there, so when Red Star contacted us and requested assistance, it was a no-brainer to send Star. Of course, it helped that he totally had a crush on her... It was also around there that Argent's aunt got ill, so she left active duty and returned back to Auckland. Jinx joined us, and I became 'official' leader of the Titans."

"Me and Dick are going to have a _very_ direct talk when we arrive."

"Dick?"

"...You mean he never told you guys his name?"

"Girl, why would he have? You know how he is about secret identities. Star claims that he never took off the mask while they were dating. ...Dick. Heh. Funny how well his name suits him, eh?"

Raven shot him a glare worthy of Batman himself, and Cyborg just chuckled.

A/N: Little later than I'm used to posting, but it's here none-the-less.

There have been some comments about Robin being a huge douchebag. And it's true – I'm deliberately exaggerating these negative aspects of his character. He's dealing with massive stress (BB leaving, refusing to accept Raven's 'death', BATMAN), and he's always had more than a bit of an arrogance/anger problem, so this is how I view that he MIGHT deal with the situation.


	6. Part VI

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

Cyborg landed the Javelin in a mountain clearing overlooking the city. "Can't be too careful. Do you know what J'onn would _do_ to me if someone stole it?" Heading into the back of their modified ship, Cyborg jumped into the T-Car. Raven hadn't noticed it before, but the T-Car had definitely been upgraded since she had left. "JARVIS, you there?"

"Yes, Master Stone. Remote uplink has been established."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Really, Cyborg? Do you need to have access to your precious computer all the time?"

"Well... no. But since I do, I can also do this... hey JARVIS, hook us up with a... 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Silver, blue racing stripes. GT Model."

"Accessing records... one moment please. Plotting surface textures now, sir."

Raven watched in amazement as panels on the car's body slid open and small veins of wiring traced their way over the car's surface. Hundreds of tiny lights embedded in the wiring activated simultaneously, weaving a blanket of photons over the car's surface. The light blinded her for a second, and when her eyes recovered, the T-Car... wasn't the T-Car anymore. Parked in the small loading bay was a silver sports car, with a pair of royal blue lines running from hood to trunk.

"Awwww yeah, now _that's_ what I'm talkin' about!" Seeing Raven's flat stare, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "You see, we want to go undercover so we don't draw attention to ourselves. The technology stolen from STARR Labs is actually an evolution of this and my holorings– my dad helped with both. Anyways, let's go. Time waits for no man."

As she climbed into the car, a flash of light momentarily blinded her as she crossed the holographic threshold. As her eyes adjusted, she barely had time to grab hold of the armrests as Cyborg floored the accelerator, shooting them out of the bay. Calling up JARVIS again, Cyborg plotted a route to Miros. "Now Raven, we've got a few options to find Nightwing."

"Okay..."

"Well, we could dress up as villains and hold someplace up. That's probably the easiest way to do it. He comes to investigate, we hold him up for your interrogation."

"Any other plans? I don't feel particularly comfortable with playing the villain. You're the one with undercover experience, not me." Raven didn't mention the true reason for not wanting to pretend to be a villain – it had taken a long time (and Terra) for the citizens of Jump City to stop assuming that she was a villain merely because of the... dark nature of her powers, to speak nothing of their origin. It wasn't a time that she had many fond memories of, and so she wasn't exactly eager to relive them.

"Well, we could always try and track him down. He's got an Honorary communicator, and we've got GPS on those. Of course, he could be storing it in a remote location, or even deactivated the tracking chip."

"How about this – I've got a better idea." Raven raised her hands to her temples and _reached_ out to Miros with her mind. Sifting through the dross, she searched for a certain beacon; one that she'd forged a connection to all those years ago.

_Dick... where are you?_

The only sound was the background murmur of the city's emotions – love, hate, anger, camaraderie, lust – for a full minute, before she felt a momentary flicker of surprise, before she was slammed out of her trance by a wall of anger and denial.

"Okay... looks like that's not going to work."

"What? What happened?"

"Well, I tried to contact him through our link. I found him, so I can confirm that he's in the city, at least. My best guess is that he thought that someone was trying to trick him into thinking that I was back."

"...but you _are_ back."

"Does he know that?"

- - - oOo - - -

_Earlier that evening..._

A dark figure rested on the heights of the North Miros Mall. Cloaked by shadows, only the faintest hint of blue splashed across his chest served to identify him. It was all that was needed – over the past year; all the villains had come to associate it with a single name.

Nightwing.

Richard Grayson swept his gaze across the park across the street from the mall. Lurk had told him that Shade was supposed to be showing up here tonight. Supposedly, he was meeting with an out-of-town villain for a bit of additional muscle. What for, Lurk hadn't been able to figure out what. His contacts didn't know, although it was entirely possible that Shade had kept his latest heist secret.

_-You really need to get a life, you know that?-_

Nightwing heard the words resonating in his head, and then he turned his head and saw a pair of blue eyes glowing from the darkness. "Lurk."

_-You know that he's not due for another two hours, right? You could be out patrolling Bayview Heights. I hear that they've got someone attacking teens alone at night.-_

"The police can deal with the norms. It's the masks that the MPD don't have the capacity to deal with. Hence why I'm here and not over there. Don't you have better things to do?"

_-Not especially. Not my plane of existence, remember?- _Lurk stepped out of the shadows. A tall man, he towered over Nightwing's 5'10" frame by nearly a foot. His glowing blue eyes complimented his obsidian skin. The faint starlight gleamed off of his smooth head while his waist long braid shifted restlessly in the wind, tapping lightly at his hip. His shoulders were covered by a mantle of long black feathers, much longer than any bird in our world. Nightwing flashed back to the first time that he had met the man – his first experiences with the Shadow Fringe...

- - - oOo - - -

It had been two months since he had taken on the mantle of Nightwing – and barely a month since his rather... disastrous meeting with Cyborg and Starfire. Although it had killed him inside, he knew that he had to do it. _Heroes_ like them didn't consort with people like him. He'd chased away his friend, pushed away his friends, all in the hopes of impressing his mentor, his _father_, but to no avail. Batman had told him that it was about time that he had gotten serious. Since arriving in Miros, he had done some things that he hadn't been proud of.

The feel of the city wasn't the same as Jump – while Jump was a bright place, a place of hope, with the occasional villain, Miros seemed... darker. Shadows seemed darker, the days didn't seem as bright, and most of the civilians had a sort of... darkness to them.

Nightwing was pulled from his musings as a pressure wave rippled through the still air. Instantly alert, he was flipping away from the source before his mind even computed what it could be. To his near shock, he saw a near giant stumble from the shadows, bleeding heavily from a wound in his side. Nightwing was shocked because this alley was a dead end – he had chosen it tonight for that precise reason. There was no conceivable way that the man could have snuck in, yet here he was.

_-Back, damn you!-_

If was surprised to hear the man's voice in his head, he was even more surprised to see what appeared out of the shadows next. Another tall man exited the shadows, but this one was completely different. He had streamers of shadow falling from his dusky form, and instead of hands he had long, jagged claws. His legs resembled those of a dog, while his feet where clawed. His eyes, instead of the clear blue of the wounded mans', where a sickly, tainted yellow.

_**-Foolish man. Did you really think that stepping out of the Fringe would save you?-**_

_-It'll save me the horror of becoming Shadow-consumed, like you, foul beast!-_

_**-Horror?- **_ The creature threw back its head and howled in laughter, sending a chill down Nightwing's spine. _**-I volunteered myself to the shadow. I sacrificed my weakness, and in return Shade gave me strength.-**_

As the wounded man looked on in horror, the shadow creature began to approach, bringing his claws to his face and slowly licking them, exposing his long, sharp teeth at the same time. The creature was thrown back suddenly, however, by a blast of fire and smoke. When it cleared, it could see Nightwing standing guard in front of its prey.

_**-Ah, an entree. **_**Excellent**_**.-**_

As the beast charged at him, Nightwing took half a dozen more explosive discs and threw them at the creature, throwing it back into the shadows.

"An entree, am I? Well, prepare to get served." Flipping his _bo_ around to behind him, he motioned the beast to attack him as he wore a confident smirk on his face. _I could take on Trigon's fire demons... he shouldn't be any harder._

With a roar, the beast jumped from the shadows _behind_ Nightwing. He barely managed to doge the surprise attack, and when he moved to counter-attack, his staff passed right through the beast's body as if it was no more substantial than smoke. That second's hesitation let the beast have time to slap him across the alley. _Okay, so he's only material when he wants to be. Fan-flipping-tastic._

_-Bring... Bring your weapon over here. I can make it so you can hurt it-_

Nightwing looked over at the blue eyed man. He felt a wave of pleading pass over him, and the familiar sensation of being buffeted by another's nearly triggered a flashback, but he coldly closed off that portion of his mind. Without another second's hesitation, he moved the end of the weapon within the man's grasp. The man's eyes flashed brighter for a second before fading to near darkness as he finally succumbed to unconsciousness. Nightwing's staff, however, began to glow with a faint blue inner radiance.

"Round two. Let's do it."

With a cry, he leapt up from the ground and slammed his _bo_ staff onto the top of its head. The beast's laugh was interrupted mid-exhalation as it was forced to its knees, screaming. Nightwing was slightly horrified to see that his weapon was leeching shadow from the creature's skin, seemingly causing it pain. As the beast raised a hand to attack, Nightwing deflected it again, increasing the rate that the shadows were being absorbed. As the creature attempted to rain further blows onto him, each deflection seemed to sap away more of its essence. With a final roar, it completely disintegrated.

Nightwing staggered back in horror. Had he... had he just _killed_ something? He looked over at the unconscious man and saw that the wounds, which had been bleeding heavily earlier, where already sealing as shadows danced around the edges of the wound. _I guess answers will have to wait until after he wakes up._

- - - oOo - - -

Lurk awoke with a pounding headache. Visualising a net of shadows falling over his body, a burst of psionic power thrummed from the base of his throat. _Ah, good. No permanent harm done, and the shadows provide healing on this plane as well. Good to know._ He slowly opened his eyes and pushed against the filthy alleyway ground to prop himself against the wall.

"Ah, so you're awake. Good. Maybe you can tell me _what the hell is going on?_" Lurk looked over to the opposite wall and saw the male leaning against the wall, _bo_ staff still faintly glowing for a few heartbeats before fading completely.

_-Thank you for the help, stranger. Not many can face one of the Consumed and survive; even with the shadow-leech that I manifested on your staff, many of my own people's warriors have difficulty. Although I am sorry that you were exposed to... this, I am thankful that you were.-_

"You still haven't explained what the hell is going on here. What _was_ that thing?"

_-_That_ was one of the Consumed. A sect of my people who follow the Shadowlord Shade. In exchange for a piece of their essence, their very soul, they are infused with raw shadowstuff from the Plane of Shadow and given immortality. But at a terrible, terrible price.-_

"Price?"

_-Indeed. For they are bound to Shade's will completely, and most, if not all, lose touch with their themselves and become nothing more than brutes, savages. We are lucky that this one retained his mind.-_

"Lucky? He almost tore you to pieces, and could have killed me, and you say that I got off _lucky_? How could it have been worse?"

Lurk gave Robin a deadpan look worthy of Raven at her finest. As he hastily shoved down that painful memory, he heard the shadowman's voice in his head again.

_-If they caught you, they'd rape you to death, eat your flesh, and then sew your skin into their clothing - and if you were very, _very lucky, _they'd do it in that order.-_

For the first time in years, Robin felt the cold grip of dread creeping up his spine. "That's... That's just... No!"

_-I did say that we were lucky. But never underestimate either type – they both have a dreadful natural cunning.-_ With a groan, he propped himself up higher on the wall. _-What is 'going on', stranger, is the fact that I am now an expatriate from my homeland and into... yours, apparently.-_

"Apparently?"

_-Aye. Stepping off of the Plane of Shadows is not an exact science for those not Consumed. Normally, my people have merely an affinity for the shadows. Even though I have honed my own skills at navigating it, I am nothing compared to those how are truly part of the Shadow, like the Consumed.-_

"Shadow Fringe? What are you talking about?"

_-Beshaba's hand... You honestly have no idea what you've gotten into, do you?-_

"What do you mean by 'gotten into'?"

_-You've destroyed one of his servitors. The Shadowlord has caught your scent.-_

- - - oOo - - -

"Look, Lurk, I've had a bad day, alright? Between people's selfishness and someone trying to resurrect bad memories, I'm not sure how much more I can take without snapping. Can't you just let me do my job?"

_-If you insist... although what was that about trying to resurrect bad memories?-_

"Look, can't you just leave it alone?"

_-I could... but I think that Raven would frown on you calling her a bad memory.-_

"Dammit Lurk, get _out_ of my head."

_-You're not even going to try and ask me to trace the telepathic call? You know that I'm a gifted psion. I could; the source of that call is still broadcasting.-_

"...I don't feel anything."

_-Of course you wouldn't. I doubt that the source is even consciously aware that it's still connected. It's faint, but it's an old connection, and its lines are deeply ingrained.-_

Nightwing felt a brief surge of hope rising despite his best efforts to quell them. _Old connection? Deeply ingrained? Could this actually be Raven, somehow risen from the grave?_ "...Alright. You can try and track the source down. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Shade and the new hired muscle. It'll also get you out of my hair." Nightwing felt more than heard Lurk step back into the shadows and seamlessly melt into them.

- - - oOo - - -

Raven and Cyborg were just approaching the outskirts of the city when a man seemed to rip out of the shadows at the side of the road and stagger onto the highway. Cyborg slammed onto the brakes and swerved aside, missing the man by a mere handful of feet. Regaining control, he pulled the car onto the shoulder and stepped out shouting.

"The _hell_ are you on, buddy?"

"So much for undercover, Cyborg..."

"Man, you just come out of nowhere, and you almost make me crash my bab... my car?"

Raven let a faint smirk cross her face. All those years, and Cyborg still referred to the T-Car as his baby. Some things truly never do change.

_-Greetings. I am known as Lurk.-_ Now that Raven and Cyborg weren't completely shattering the speed limit, they got a look at the man.

_Tall..._ was the first though in Raven's mind. It was a rare day that she saw someone whose height exceeded the metallic Titan's. An instant later, she noted his unique features and the odd feeling rolling off of him in waves.

"You don't belong here. The Prime, I mean. You're from a different plane."

As Cyborg's eye nearly popped from its socket, Lurk merely smiled. _-Ah, you're the one that sent the plea. And you are correct – I am from the Shadow Fringe.-_

"Plea? What are you talking about?"

Lurk's eyebrows curled towards the centre of his face. _ -You did send a telepathic message to the human know as Richard Grayson, also known as Nightwing, am I correct?-_

"I tried to contact him, if that's what you mean."

_-Nightwing did not greatly explain himself to me. If you like, I can take you both to him immediately.-_

"How are you going to do that? Do you have access to the Watchtower's transporters?"

Lurk treated the other man to a near-baneful look. _-The League refuses to acknowledge me. What I mean is that I'll guide you both along the Fringe to Nightwing.-_

Alarmed, Raven turned him down flat. "No. From my studies, I know a little of the beasts that prowl the Shadow Plane. They aren't something to be trifled with lightly."

_-No need for your alarm, sorceress. I would never take you to the Plane of Shadow – we'll merely travel along its barest peripheries, treading along the Fringe.-_

"Rae, I'm trusting you on this one. Point me to a fuse box or a computer, and I'm your man. But I don't know anything about this sort of thing. It's your call, girl."

Weighting the decision, she decided that speed would be preferable to relative safety in this instance. "Let's do it."

_-Excellent. Now, both of you, take my hands, and whatever you do, do _not_ let go.-_

Before Raven or Cyborg could ask why holding onto him was so important, the ground seemed to drop out from below them and they fell into the black.

A/N: +1 to anybody who caught the (rather obvious, I think) Firefly reference.

Hopefully this lived up to expectations. As always, comments/concerns/criticisms are always appreciated and valued.


	7. Part VII

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

The utter darkness lasted for a score of heartbeat before Cyborg's sensors could compensate. As he looked around, he didn't know what to expect – huge swathes of shadows, fierce beasts, anything of a fantastical bent. He was certainly taken aback to see that it looked... exactly the same, save that everything seemed to be in shades of gray and black.

"Raven, nothing happened."

_-It's not unusual for someone new to travelling the Fringe to think so. It's more of a demi-plane rather than an independent plane on its own, friend. -_

"What he means is that it's more of a... dark reflection on the Prime, rather than a separate entity on its own. The Prime being our native plane here, of course. It'll have many of the same features – roads, cities, mountains, but there'll always be something subtly wrong. Look at the trees, for example."

Taking a closer look at the trees on the edge of the highway, Cyborg finally realised that the leaves we giving a fuzzy edge to the tree – they were actually wisps of shadows instead of actual leaves.

"Huh."

_-Come, travellers. Although the Fringe is significantly safer than the Plane of Shadows, the Shadowlord has been active in these parts for quite a while now; he'll probably have a shadow hunter or two patrolling around the city.-_ The dark man pulled along on their hands, forcing them to step forwards or to risk losing contact with his hands. Raven and Cyborg's eyes watered as the landscape flew past in a rush at a single step. _-I... apologise. It's been a long time since I've taken someone new to the Fringe treading along its edges. Although it's a much faster form of transportation, it does tend to leave one... disoriented, at least at first.-_

Lurk was right – after a few minutes of shadow walking, the city flying by barely affected them. Sooner than they thought possible, they were well within the city limits and approaching a rooftop. They climbed a large building in a single step, then light abruptly seeped back into everything. A figure on the rooftop, concealed until it rose to investigate them, slowly walked over to the shadow walkers.

"...Raven?"

"It's me, Richard."

Nightwing slipped over to hug her, but hesitated when he noticed Cyborg's towering form standing behind her.

"So. Y'all remember Raven, do you? Girl who vanished over a year before Nightwing ever 'appeared'? Pretty funny story for a guy who's _never been part of the Teen Titans_, wouldn't you say?"

The man in black clenched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Look, Vic, you-"

"Vic? You lost the right to call me that a long time ago, man. Only my friends call me Vic. It's Cyborg to you."

"Fair enough, I deserved that. But Raven... how? You were... are? Dead."

"Not everything is as it seems, especially with magic involved. Long story short, I was on an artificial demiplane where time passed differently. I've only been gone for a month "my time"."

"So the link shorting out..."

"...Was likely due to the temporal interference."

Nightwing slowly sat down on the edge of the roof holding his head in his hands. _This can't possibly be happening... but it is. Raven's back from the grave, or, rather, she never died in the first place. Have I done wrong? Had Beast Boy been... right?_

_-You cannot regret the actions that you've taken. You used what information was available to you at the time. You couldn't have possibly known that she slipped out of your time stream.-_

"Now, Richard, I believe that you're waiting for something? I propose a deal; we'll help you with your problem tonight, then you'll help us in the morning. Agreed?"

Cyborg looked liable to start raising hell before Raven silenced him with a single glare. He immediately backed down, scuffing his heel on the roof of the mall. A light grumbling could be heard from his direction, but neither Raven nor Nightwing paid it any attention.

Nightwing shook his head almost immediately. "You guys don't understand. Once you start fighting this enemy, you can't stop. Once he has your psychic signature, he'll track you down even if you try to hide. There's no escaping until Shade's dealt with. _Permanently._" Seeing the looks of scepticism on the faces of his former friends, he sighed again. "I guess that if you're willing to take that chance... I agree to your terms."

"'Bout time you showed an ounce of sense, man." Cyborg grinned as he cocked his arm, transforming it into his sonic cannon. "I'm not going to say it's gonna be like old times, but..." the mechanical man extended his 'free' hand in a fist towards the dark hero. "I've got the sonic..."

For the first time in what felt like years, Richard Grayson felt a smile stretch across his face. "And I've got the boom."

- - - oOo - - -

Across the concourse, the group of heroes could see the shadows slowly darken until they seemed less like shadows and more like the complete absence of light. It was then that a single figure stepped out of the darkness cast by a fountain. Cyborg tried to use his enhanced cybernetics to focus on the figure, but they couldn't quite penetrate the ephemeral gloom that cloaked the figure's features. He made out nearly a dozen other figures that stepped out of the nearby darkness, though.

Initially, they appeared similar to Lurk. Tall, nearly gaunt black men wearing long cloaks, with the only difference being their cloaks seemed to be woven from some sort of blackened silk.

Nightwing raised a hand and nodded to Lurk. Lurk placed one hand onto Robin's _bo_ staff, causing it to glow a faint blue, and the other onto Cyborg's shoulder, making a fine blue mist slowly seep through the seams of his mechanical body. Cyborg raised a curious eyebrow at the shadowman.

_-I've placed the same power upon your body as I have upon your friend's staff. Nightwing told me that you disdain of more... mundane weaponry, correct?-_

Cyborg felt a slight grin growing on his face. _So, good 'ole Traffic Light didn't really forget, did he?_

His inner musings were interrupted by a curt nod from Nightwing. Lurk held Nightwing's shoulder as Raven created a dark pool that captured her and Cyborg. Both parties emerged near the middle of the shadowy gathering. Contrary to Robin's strategy, Nightwing merely charged into battle utterly silent, with none of the youthful enthusiasm and arrogance that had characterized the former Titan.

Soon there was no more time to analyse the others as three of the figures charged at him. Drawing night-black greatswords from their shadowy cloaks, he barely managed to dodge out of the way as they wove three different trajectories that could have cut him up as neatly as he had carved a pot roast the other night. As he rolled out of the way, he willed his other hand into a secondary cannon. He heard the whine of his cannons that indicated they were charging, and when they finally rose into the ultrasonic range, he smirked.

"Say 'Ahhhhh' boys." Twin blasts of blue-tinged sonic energy blasted forth from his cannons. Two of the invaders, believing themselves immune to the human's weapons, were sent flying by the beams. The third, shocked that the beams didn't phase straight through them, barely deflected the large metalline fist that rushed at him.

- - - oOo - - -

Raven was having considerably more trouble with her pair of opponents. She had tried to just straight up blast them, but to her horror, found that her magic seemed to invigorate them more than anything else. When she resorted to trying to toss objects at them, the first car she threw passed through them as if they were no more than air. In desperation, she enclosed them in globes of black force, hoping to at least contain them until one of the others could deal with them.

"Thank Azar. That seems to be holding..." she trailed off as she saw an arm holding a large black mace slowly push itself through the surface of the globe, leaving the sphere of darkness completely unharmed.

"Of course" she deadpanned. The head had just emerged, bearing an evil grin, when a line of solid blue light impacted the head, causing it's eyes to dim and the body to slump to the ground. "Ro- Nightwing. Thank you."

Nightwing ignored her as the other figure emerged from its prison. With a flick of his wrists, Nightwing separated his staff into a pair of long handled daggers, both still glowing with that unearthly blue light. One moved to turn aside his opponents' weapon as it fell at him, and then he turned with the blow and stabbed the other deep into the shadow creature's side.

Raven was more than a little shocked at Dick's brutality. She had seen him do some awful things, but that cold method of dealing death... she hadn't honestly thought about what he must have been through the past few years.

"Raven! Go run back-up on Cyborg! You're only making these things stronger!" Nodding her head, she dismissed the globes of force before falling into another pool of black and reappearing at Cyborg's back, missing Nightwing walking up to the unconscious foe and stabbing it through its blackened heart.

It wasn't long until all of the opponents were incapacitated in one way or another, save for the mysterious figure. The quartet moved to surround it before they heard it laugh.

"Ah, Nightwing. I see that you've recruited some new friends. Now, is it just me, or are these the Titans? Including... is that Raven? Where in the planes did you find _that_ relic?"

Momentarily taken aback, Nightwing lost his ability of speech for a heartbeat, but that was long enough for Cyborg to beat him to the punch.

"If y'all know who we are, then you know that you're gonna get beat." In all of his self-aware cockiness, he let his secondary cannon revert to hand form. "So you might as well give up now."

Again, the figure laughed. "I already know exactly how to take care of you, Teen Titans. I can't believe that none of you has recognized me yet, to tell you the truth."

The figure waved a hand and the shadows dissipated, leaving only the barest hints of trailing shadows. A blank facade stared out from an eerily familiar face with near-glowing ruby eyes. "It's been long while since Paris, hasn't it?"

- - - oOo - - -

Raven was the first to realise exactly who they were looking at. "...Kyd? Kyd Wykkyd? How can that possibly be you?"

"So, the relic recognizes me."

"Yo, this isn't possible. You're flash-frozen along with the rest of the HIVE5 in the Watchtower. Every single frozen villain was personally accounted for by the Justice League."

"Unless, of course, one happened to escape _before_ the League counted up their tally of villains. You see, when you're flash frozen, time still passes for you, however incredibly slowly. Alone among the villains, my powers were not only fast enough to activate between your departure and the League's arrival, but they enabled me to get far enough away. However, they had some... unexpected side effects. I was stranded in the Plane of Shadow for years until I finally figured out how to escape. And so I began my campaign of revenge against you, the Titans. And who better than your former leader, Nightwing the Great Hero." Kyd sneered, making a dismissive hand gesture. "Great Hero indeed. I did a little digging, Nightwing, and I finally discovered that you drove your own team away. How does it feel, to be the cause of your own downfall?"

"Not as bad as you might think." Nightwing replied, sliding a small cylindrical object from a bracelet on his wrist. With a snap, it expanded into a blue and black birdarang, which he instantly tossed at him.

Not even trying to hide a smirk, their opponent slipped into a shadow and reappeared at the end of the weapon's arc and snatched it out of the air. "Hmmm... I wonder how that works. Is it collapsible, or are there tiny machines that build it in real-"

He was thrown off his feet by the ensuing explosion. Gathering his wits, he saw the heroes charging him en masse, with Nightwing leading the charge, flanked by Lurk and Cyborg, with Raven gliding above.

"Titans, go!" The familiar battle cry sent a surge of confidence soaring through Raven. Although the voice was different; deeper and with an undertone of pain, the enthusiasm for battle and bringing forth justice to the unjust remained the same. As the others joined in melee, she stood back, knowing that Kyd's power had a distinct advantage over her own here.

- - - oOo - - -

Nightwing had found the old battle cry bursting from his throat unheeded. He put it down to fighting alongside Raven and Cyborg once again. All idle thoughts fled him as a dark arm appeared out of nowhere and clotheslined him, flooring him completely before he could catch himself.

"Ah, hells no." Cyborg tried to grab for the arm, but it quickly retreated through a barely visible tear in the air. "Dammit, why'd you have to pick a fight at night with this guy, Rob?"

"Think that it was my choice? He only ever comes out at night!" Nightwing yelled back as he managed to deflect a leg sweep that would have grounded him again. Kyd Wykkyd's metaphorical gloves were off – he was standing not twenty feet away from the three combatants, yet he was engaging all of the simultaneously.

"Well... shut up! You could have figured _something_ out."

"Nice comeback, Tin Man. So, any bright ideas?"

Deflecting another punch at his vulnerable head, Cyborg paused as a low smile spread across his face. "Aye, I've got one, but it won't last long, and it'll leave me pretty drained afterwards. You and Lurk have got to distract him for a minute, aight?" Without waiting for an answer, Cyborg bent down on one knee and popped open a part of his chest plate and a panel on his thigh and started rewiring.

"You got that, Lurk? Let's do it."

_-Let's.-_ Although Lurk's main powers were ranged, Nightwing had trained him in basic martial arts, and at this point, even his lack lustre skills were needed – every opponent helped cut down on how much Kyd could focus on a single opponent. He shadow walked over to behind Kyd and tried to palm strike his shoulder, but Kyd slipped entirely into a tear and re-emerged behind Nightwing, shoving him into Lurk.

Nightwing tried to flip over his friend, but Lurk was unused to close combat manoeuvres and tripped in his way, sending both tumbling to the ground. Kyd turned his attention to the mechanical man, but was surprised to see a black plane appear in front of him, blocking his line of sight to the large titan.

"Forget about me?" Raven knew that her powers weren't quite quick enough to catch him, especially with the new speed and proficiency that he seemed to have, but they'd learned in past battles that he had trouble accurately placing his portals unless he could see their terminus or he knew the location intimately. Raven knew that Cyborg needed just a bit longer, and Nightwing and Lurk were too tied up to help at the moment.

It was up to her now.

A/N: Y'all get an update a day early, because my 3 most intense finals are tomorrow and the day after, and I will be busy as all hells trying to keep up.

And so we find out more about the mysterious Shade, including his identity. But whatever will Raven do against an opponent who she can't hurt? And what is Cyborg's plan?

This is probably my favourite chapter so far in regards to dialogue (in between Cyborg and Nightwing, mostly).

See ya next week!


	8. Part VIII

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

"Nice try, Raven, but I've honed my abilities over the years. I took the name Shade to show my new mastery over the darkness." Raven was shocked to see him slowly push his way through her blocking wall. "This? This is nothing. Now, if you ever get the chance to see the Wall of Umbral Terror... _That's_ a wall."

"Yo, Rae; move it. I've got this." Raven slipped into a portal of her own as soon as she heard Cyborg's voice, and reappeared a dozen feet away, far enough away from the coming conflict as to not be in his way.

"You, Robot-man? I'll deal with you as easily as I took care of Nightwing and his accomplice there."

"I don't think so." Cyborg smirked as he microwelded a pair of wires hanging from his arm with his finger. Bright, near-blinding light suddenly blazed from his cybernetic parts.

Hissing, Kyd Wykkyd shielded his eyes and instinctively took a step back. As he moved to slip into a tear, however, he saw that it wouldn't form. Wisps of shadowstuff appeared, but were torn apart by Cyborg's light.

"Booyah, Kyd." Kyd looked up in time to see a shining fist descending towards his eyes. He tried to roll out of the way, but it caught him and sent him flying heads over heels. Again, he tried to open up a portal near his feet to trip up the massive cyborg headed his way, but it wouldn't establish itself again. He realised that he'd have to depend on his own extremely limited fighting skills to win the day.

Cyborg smirked when he realised that his hastily contrived invention was working. It seemed that flooding all nearby spectrums with a wash of photonic energy seemed to neutralise Kyd's powers – an excellent precaution for his new prison cell after all this. Easily catching the clumsy punch that was thrown at him, he threw him back. Deciding to finish it, he transformed his arm into its signature cannon and let off a mid-intensity blast, enough to throw Kyd against the fountain and take him down for the count.

- - - oOo - - -

"Cyborg, what was that? Why didn't you prepare that before the battle?" Nightwing demanded, absentmindedly rubbing a bruised forearm.

"Oh, gee, I don't know, maybe because I _had no idea what we'd be facing._ Precognition is more Raven's speed, and even then..." Cyborg threw a look at Raven, who shook her head. "See? We had no idea that we'd be facing off against Kyd Wykkyd. I mean, that's totally old school. The last time we faced him... well, you were still a Titan."

Nightwing cringed, but quickly schooled his features into a more neutral mask. "You know what, it doesn't matter. You helped me out, so I'll return the favour. What can I do for the Titans?"

"We're looking for a man named James Masters. Recently moved here after he was fired by Fukimishi Electronics. He's likely holding a grudge, and he's a suspect in a case we're working on."

"Alright, Raven. What's the nature of the case? It might help e narrow down where in the city he settled down."

""He may have leaked-"

"That's enough, Raven."

"Cyborg?"

"This is classified _Titans_ information. Since he's not a Titan, we keep him on a need-to-know basis. Aight?"

"If you feel as if that's best. I missed the past couple years, so I'll defer to you. But let it be known that I don't agree with this. Not one bit."

"Noted. Now, Nightwing, can you help us?"

"Meet me back here tomorrow night. I should have some more information for you then." With a nod to Lurk, they both stepped into the shadows with nary a backwards look and disappeared from the rooftop.

"Don't you think that that was a little harsh, Cyborg? He was your friend for a long time, and even if he recently betrayed that trust-"

"No. Raven, there's betraying my trust, and then there's stomping all over it and lighting it on _fire_. In between setting off B, breaking Star's heart and denying even _knowing_ us... that's just plain heartless. That's crossing a whole other line entirely."

Raven still disagreed, but she reserved judgment. It was a quiet ride back to the Javelin after Cyborg summoned the disguised T-Car. Cyborg refrained from blasting his tunes partly out of respect for Raven, and partly because he was too distracted stewing in his anger.

- - - oOo - - -

Nearly twenty four later, Cyborg drove his 'Mitsubishi Eclipse' through town slowly, as to not attract any outward attention.

"Cyborg, there's no reason to drive so slowly. It's nearly three in the morning."

"It's called keeping a low profile, Raven. Besides, we don't get virtual immunity from speeding here like we do in Jump – it's a jurisdictional thing. But most of all, I'm in no real rush to see Nightwing again."

"You know that we need him to find Masters."

"Well, we don't necessarily _need_ him, _per se_, but having him co-operate does make it a whole lot easier. He does have the home field advantage here, after all." Cyborg sighed and shifted gears. "Look, you know that I'm not exactly comfortable with this." He glared at Raven as she (unsuccessfully) tried to stifle her snort. "But I realise that it's for the greater good. So I'll try my best to swallow my personal dislike of the guy. Deal?"

Raven merely nodded as she saw the sign directing them to the North Miros Mall, where Nightwing had agreed to meet them. Cyborg parked the car, and the two heroes walked towards the fountain where the previous night's encounter had taken place.

"It's about time you two showed up" Nightwing's voice rang out, startling them. He stepped from the shadows, Lurk constantly at his side. "I've got the information that you requested."

"Already?" Cyborg was visibly impressed. "I thought that he would have at least tried to cover his tracks, considering that he felt as if he needed to escape Jump."

"Oh, he tried. But when you combine being trained with the Batman with no personal life outside vigilantism... I found time. He's staying in the Evergreen Apartments, unit number 818. It's registered under the name Seamus Harper. I took a quick look inside, but I didn't see anything overtly suspicious."

"Wait, you went _inside_? You, Mr. Work-with-existing-law-enforcement? That'd render any warrant null and void."

"You weren't really planning on obtaining a warrant now, where you, Cyborg?"

"Well, no, but the point remains, Nightwing. We thank you for your help." Raven rose a few inches from the ground and spun back towards the vehicle, Cyborg following then swiftly overtaking her leisurely speed.

"Raven..."

"Yes, Nightwing?"

Raven turned and saw Nightwing's shoulders fall. "I... I didn't mean for things to turn out this way. Once we thought that you were gone... You've got to understand my position."

She had been content to let bygones be bygones, but his words made Rage begin to boil through her veins. "You say that I have to understand your position. But you're utterly incapable of even trying to understand anyone else's. Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy... especially Beast Boy. I know that you two have never had the best relationship, especially after the Beast Incident."

"Raven, we thought that you had _died._"

"Then you should have done the right thing and held the team together. You may mourn quietly, but Beast Boy and Starfire are both more evident in their grief. You _should_ have tried to comfort them. You _should_ have tried helping them. You _should_ have acted like the leader. You _should_ have at least pretended to care."

"It was for the good of the team."

"_Excuse_ me?" Raven stalked forward until she was in front of him. Although she was more than a full head shorter, she seemed to tower above him. "The good of the team? _You destroyed the team. _The Richard Grayson that I knew would have fought to keep the team together. He would have succeeded in bringing his _brother _back after he chased him off. But I guess that that Richard died when I vanished."

"Raven... It's still me; I'm still Richard." Nightwing made a motion to remove his mask before a haze of blackness appeared around the edges, sealing it in place.

"No. You remove that mask, and you'll be removing your face." Her voice softened as she placed a hand on his cheek, fingers resting on the magic-rimmed mask. "This is your face now – you _are_ Nightwing." Her voiced hardened "And no longer Richard Grayson, the man that I once knew."

"But..."

"No. Nightwing is only an acquaintance of the Titans, no more and no less. Goodbye." Raven turned for a heartbeat, then swiftly turned around and slapped Nightwing across his face. He staggered and nearly fell down before Lurk caught him. He could see four glowing crimson eyes staring at him banefully from beneath her hood. "**That was for what you said to Beast Boy.**" She snarled atonally, before the eyes disappeared and she walked back towards Cyborg, who stood wearing a satisfied smile on his face.

"Raven..." Nightwing called, hurt clear in his voice.

"Yes, Nightwing?" Raven paused, but didn't even dignify him by facing him

"When you find Beast Boy... tell him that I think that I understand now." Before Raven and Cyborg could clear the shocked looks off of their faces, Nightwing had already taken ahold of Lurk's shoulder and vanished into the night.

Cyborg's mouth opened and closed, but no sounds emerged. Raven carefully closed his bottom jaw and patted his shoulder. "Let's just find Masters and think about this later. Mission comes first."

- - - oOo - - -

"Mr. Harper? Are you in? These young... people have some questions for you."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." The man walked to the door, patting his jacket pocket to insure that his cell was in his pocket. He opened the door to see his new landlady, the elderly Mrs. Chung, standing in front of a young woman not much taller than herself. "People? I only see the girl here."

"Nah, there's two of us, alright." A large portion of the shadowed hallway broke off and the man was horrified to see the giant stride into his rooms, portions of his body lighting up as he slammed him against a wall. "Hello, James. Nice to see you."

James heard Mrs. Chung's feeble protests being soothed by the woman in the cloak, and eventually flashing... something at the woman before entering and closing the door behind her.

"You are James Masters, recently employed by Fukimishi Electronics, Jump City division, correct?" Although it was phrased as a question, he knew that the gothic girl was merely confirming what she already knew. As he meekly nodded his head, the Cyborg lifted him up higher, holding him off of the ground.

"We know that you leaked Project Setting Sun. We want to know who you leaked it to. Answer our questions nicely, and we'll let you go no harm done. And don't think that you can lie to us; my sensors are measuring your heartbeat and retinal dilations in real-time. If you lie, I'll know. Now, who did you tell?"

"Your mother." The man spat viciously.

A sharp, stinging slap echoed through the room. "My mother was a better woman than you could ever hope to be. That's strike one – you get two more chances before I give you over to my friend Raven here. I'll ask again – who are you working for?"

"Santa Claus. He needs to give toys to all the good little boys and-" A second slap echoed through the room.

"Second strike, man. This is your last chance."

Masters opened his mouth again to lie, but then he felt a... _presence_ in the room. Looking over his large tormenter's shoulder, he saw that the formerly creepy looking girl had... transformed. Instead of a girl, there was a beshadowed cloak stirring, with large, semi-opaque tentacles emerging from the bottom. In the hood cavity, four blood-red eyes stared out at him, exuding an aura of menace.

"I... I don't know. I never saw her face. All I can tell you is that she had a Russian accent. And her name was something like Rube... or Bouge, or-"

"Rouge."

"That's it! Rouge. She was my contact. I don't know anything beyond that, I swear."

"Oh, I believe you. If you knew anything else, you'd probably be dead already. Raven, let's get out of here. It's a good thing that we're on the lookout for B – we've got a Brotherhood to hunt down.

A/N: Yes, Cyborg is the BAMF in this story. How could you tell? And no cliffhanger? BLASPHEMY.


	9. Part IX

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

Part IX

The trip back to Jump City was silent. Both occupants of the craft were consumed in their own thoughts; Cyborg was thinking about re-engaging the Brotherhood, while Raven's thoughts were more... nostalgic.

_I wonder how much Beast Boy's been affected by everything. Initially, I would have guessed that he would have changed the least, but it seems like he's been through a lot these past few years._

"Cyborg?"

"Yeah, Raven? What's up?"

"When was the last time that you saw Beast- I mean Changeling? I know earlier you mentioned him living in Africa, but you implied that you'd seen him fairly recently."

Well, relatively so, yeah. Last time I saw him was... Nine months, four days, seventeen hours and thirty four minutes ago." Raven cocked an eyebrow and he reddened slightly. "Computer brain, remember? Of course, I'd have remembered up to the day, regardless. Although I was pretty lucky that I saw him this year."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, he makes it a point to fly over here once a year, always the same time. Hell, the Doom Patrol and the Justice League sees more of him than we do on a _good_ year. This year, I managed to catch a glimpse of him on the perimeter cameras, though. It was a new one, so he didn't know its placement, I guess."

"Catch a glimpse? Didn't he at least come in and say hello to everyone?"

"Rae..." Cyborg tapped a few keys and waited for the auto-pilot to engage. After hearing the mechanical voice confirm activation, he spun his seat around and looked the half-demoness in the eyes. "Raven. Changeling... he isn't exactly the same free-spirited guy you remember. Events have definitely affected him more than he lets on.

"How so?" Inside, Raven felt a pain in her chest. _What could have happened that'd change him so much?_

"Well... he's... you know what, why don't I just show you? It's a lot easier than trying to explain it... and I'm not sure if you'd believe me either." Cyborg spun back to the control panel and indicated for her to follow him. Leaning over, she looked at the screen embedded in the panel. After a few moments of tapping buttons, Raven saw the League symbol appear, then recede into the background as an image of a large black man appeared on screen. "This is a recording taken about six months ago of a communiqué between Green Lantern and Changeling. He was tracking down a new villain who'd fled to the wilds of Africa, and Changeling's Africa's self-appointed protector. He knows the lay of the land, so the League usually tracks him down whenever they can for a hand down there."

Raven nodded and watched the screen as the story unfolded...

- - - oOo - - -

"Changeling, this is Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. Do you read? Our Javelin is descending now, and we'll be at the LZ momentarily."

A low-pitched growl was heard over the comm. "I'm already here. Awaiting your landing." A sharp hiss of static was heard as the signal was abruptly cut off.

"Hmmph. Kid's got issues, Shay."

"You know that, John. Give the kid a break, okay?"

Before Green Lantern could respond, there was a deep, thrumming noise as the ship switched power from its flight engines to its VTOL engines. The ship landed on the thick grass of the African savannah and Hawkgirl took a deep breath of the hot air that rushed past as the bay door opened.

"Try an be nice – for me, okay?" She spread her wings and glided to the open hatch.

Green Lantern mumbled something under his breath as he lifted from his seat and flew out the open door after her.

"Where is that boy, dammit? He said that he was already here."

"I am. Just waiting for you to land." The voice emerged from the thick grasses. A tall, green figure emerged. Both heroes were surprised to see the lean body was covered in tribal-looking tattoos. Piercing yellow eyes caught their gaze and held it as the man walked towards them. "So. I heard that you've got a bad guy that's made himself scarce in my land. And you want my help to sniff him out."

"Yeah, that's right. Will you help us, Changeling?"

"Sure." A grin crossed the changeling's face. "Digging the new threads, Shay. I'm glad someone else knows where it's at." With that, he shifted into an emerald vulture and took to the air, swiftly followed by the other heroes.

- - - oOo - - -

"And that's all the recent footage of him. The recording equipment is attached to the Javelin, and since he didn't accompany them back to it, we don't get another look at him."

"He's... not the Beast Boy I remember."

"Oh, right, damn. I'd forgotten the last time that you'd seen him was years ago. Probably should have warned you, eh?"

Raven sat back in her chair and stared out the window, seeing the landscape flash by without really seeing it. _I know logically that that has to be Beas- Changeling, but mentally... it's hard to accept that he could have changed that much. From the tattoos, to his body... but the eyes are the part that gets me. They seem so... je ne sais quoi. It's unsettling._

A muted chirping brought her out of her reverie. "Cyborg?"

"Hold on a sec, Rae. Just checking... we've got a message incoming from the Tower. On-screen now."

An image of Jinx appeared on the screen. "Hey guys. We got a message from an old friend of ours, and I figure that you'd want to be here for it when I open it."

"We trust you, Jinx. Is it from Aqualad again? How's Tula's pregnancy going?"

"Nah, it's not from Aqualad. Arsenal traced the signal - it's from the Horn of Africa."

Cyborg's jaw dropped.

"B..."

- - - oOo - - -

As Cyborg slowly directed the ship onto its landing pad, Raven heard him muttering about how he hasn't talked to his little buddy in months, and all he gets is a lousy message. She smirked before tapping his shoulder and waving goodbye as she dropped into a well of inky blackness and disappeared. She could hear Cyborg cursing at her and telling her to wait until he got there to play it. She descended through the floors, slowly approaching the subterranean Ops centre.

Jinx looked up as the shadows condensed near the ceiling of the bunker.

"Hey Raven."

Raven floated down to the ground and cocked an eyebrow her way.

"How did you know I was there?"

"Oh, I felt it."

"Felt it?"

"Yeah, I started to pick up residual auras about a year ago. I tell you, it really makes it hard to sneak up on me. Isn't that right, Cyborg?"

Raven turned and saw Cyborg's hulking form towering over her.

"Uh... yeah, right. Heh. So, moving on; you said that you have a message for me?"

"Yeah. We got it early this morning, while Arsenal was _supposed_ to be monitoring the system. Gods know what he was off doing. Anyhow... here we go."

Jinx placed her hand on the console, and a three inch tall figure materialised over an adjacent panel. As the hologram stabilised, Raven realised that it looked like Beast Boy had in the League recording.

"Cy. I've gotten reports of the Brotherhood of Evil on the move again. GL and Shay gave me a hand tracking them, and at least one of them is in Canada. I've already called the Doom Patrol, but they've found evidence of General Immortus' forces in south-east Asia. I'd have gone already, but you made me swear by... her not to hunt them alone. I've embedded some co-ordinates in this message for Cape Verde. If you're not there in 36 hours, I'm going without you. Changeling out."

The light flickered for a second before dying, leaving the fading echoes of the green man's voice in the cavern.

"That was..."

"Abrupt."

"Thank you, Cyborg." Raven took a breath to compose herself. "We can leave anytime you'd like, Cyborg. I can meditate on the way there, if you want to leave right away."

"Nah, I'll give the Javelin some cool-down time, and I've got a few things to do here anyways. We can make it to Africa in..." tapping a few buttons on his arm, he smiled. "In about an hour, give or take, if we make it a sub-orbital flight. Y'all can go meditate – just ask JARVIS to find me when you're ready to go."

Raven merely nodded before phasing upwards and out, heading for the beach.

_I need to attend to Nevermore. I haven't really taken the chance to go there for a while, and I have no doubt that they'll need to be settled after this entire incident._

She emerged from the bedrock and floated towards the shore. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tall block of stone protruding from the ground near Beat Boy's boulder. Intrigued, she floated over to it. Her hand flew to her mouth as she realised what it was. It was her memorial.

_Today marks the day that Raven, a Founding Titan, has been gone for a year. She was a valued ally, and a true friend. She will live forever in our memories._ She noticed that each of the other original Titan's names were signed into the edifice, but Beast Boy's name was merely carved, with no hint of the person behind them. In fact, if she had to guess, she'd have guess that someone other than the green changeling had carved Beast Boy's name onto the rock, and he had had nothing to do with it. Seeing as how he had apparently refused to accept that she had died... it made a frightening amount of sense.

Folding herself into a lotus position, she summoned a mirror of dark energy and stared deep into it's obsidian face. A_zarath Metrion Zinthos..._

- - - oOo - - -

Raven opened her eyes to a devastated wasteland. The various boulders floated on irregular planes, and she could hear a faint rumbling as two distant monolithic rocks grated against one another. She wasted no time in flying towards the first of the Gates, and as she approached, she murmured a complex spell beneath her breath, altering the fabric of her reality ever so slightly. She passed through the stone archway with a flash of pure white and alighted upon a massive pedestal floating in the nether. As she approached a ritual circle graven into the ground, eight figures rose from the ground.

"Happy. Brave. Timid. Rage. Knowledge. Affection. Rude. Wisdom. You're all here. Let' s begin."

- - - oOo - - -

Raven was abruptly tugged from Nevermore by a hand on her shoulder. Although it had been... trying, the situation in Nevermore had been stabilised, at least temporarily. She reluctantly cracked open her eyes and was more than slightly surprised to note the sun descending on the horizon.

"Yes?"

"You ready to go, Rae? It's been almost ten hours."

"Just let me grab a thing or two – I'll be right up." The metal man's footsteps marched away, their regular metallic sound slowly disappearing. Raven let out a breath that soared over the cool Pacific breeze. _Beast Boy..._ She lifted herself up upon those same breezes and headed for the Javelin bay.

Her emotions had been near out of control. Half of her emotions had been near catatonic from all the events and changes that had happened, the other half was up in arms. Especially Rage. Rage felt cheated of those years of life that she could never reclaim, and it had taken the combined forces of her stable emotions to calm her.

But now she was finally going to see him. After all these 'years', she wondered who different he would be. Not different in general – she'd already seen evidence of that in the League video. No, she wanted to know how different he'd be... with her. Before she'd gone off to study, he had mentioned that he had wanted to talk to her about something, but she had brushed it off.

But now... she was left with the vaguest feeling that it had been something important. Judging by the fact that he'd taken 6 months to get over her apparent death, and the... warm and fuzzy feelings that she'd been feeling from him before she left, she could only come to one conclusion.

Beast Boy liked her. And not liked her - _liked_ liked her. As in more than a friend.

That in and of itself was surprising enough. Who would have thought that the changeling would have had such good taste in women? Raven's light-hearted thoughts came screeching to a halt. _Except for the fact that he doesn't. Not really. Does the name Terra strike a bell?_. Raven curled her fists and growled. _That no good_ bitch. _If she hadn't died to save the city... I may have ended her myself. How could she have broken my Beast Boy's heart not once, but_ twice,_ and still expected him to take her back? Ugh. Bitch._

Raven nearly fell from the sky as the full implication of what she'd said hit her. _Wait,_ MY_ Beast Boy? Since when?_ To her dawning horror, she realised that she couldn't discover when the line between Beast Boy and _My_ Beat Boy had become blurred, and that frightened her more than anything. How could this sort of thing just... sneak up on her?

She was so lost in thought that she barely noticed floating through the bay doors of the Javelin and unconsciously belted herself in as Cyborg ran the few final pre-flight checks. The scent of tea woke her up.

"Hey Raven. I figured that you could use this. You were out there a long time." She turned and saw Jinx's characteristic cat's eye irises looking into her own eyes with concern. "You've been out there almost all day. Vic was getting worried about you."

"Thank you... truly. I know that I'm not the easiest person to deal with, and I know that we had our troubles back then, and-"

"Water under the bridge, Raven. See, this is exactly why I had to come with you guys. You being all apologetic with B ain't going to cut it. I know that everybody's told you that he's different, but you shouldn't change how you act. He saw you, and still sees you, as tough as steel. If you show up acting all timid and sad, he'll think that you're an imposter." She flinched slightly. "The Doom Patrol found that out the _hard_ way."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, little lady, that's a story best saved for another time." Cyborg interrupted, swing his chair around. We just made orbit, so it'll be a while before we hit Africa. Any last questions before we get there?"

"Just one, Cyborg. Did Beast Boy... you know."

Cyborg gave her a blank look. Raven could see the question in his eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. It seemed somewhat... wrong to ask him to reveal his old buddy's (likely) deepest secret. After all, what could he possibly have to hide besides a crush on the forbidden fruit? Raven looked pleadingly at his wife, hoping that she'd see the unspoken question there.

"I think... I think that she wants to know if Change-Beast Boy liked her, Vic."

"'Course he liked you, Raven. Why'd he spend so much time tryin' to make you smile if he didn't?"

"Victor... She wants to know if he _liked_ her. Like you used to _like_ Karen."

"What? I never..." Catching the glare in both females' eyes, he deflated. "Yeah, he did. He was going to tell you as soon as you got back from Master Pai Long's place. But as you can see... that didn't turn out. At all. He kinda... shut himself away after that. There was more than one Honorary Titan, hell, more than a few Leaguers, that tried to go out with him, but he turned them all down flat. He even turned down Ice, if you can believe it."

"What? No way." Jinx's hand flew to her mouth in surprise.

"Ice?" Raven's eyebrow rose as she directed her infamous start at the couple.

"Yeah, Ice. She's a full-fledged Justice Leaguer. Got some pretty sick control over ice and cold. She's a beaut, too. Hold on, she's in the Javelin's files..." A few keys clicked and a three foot tall image appeared in the centre of the floor. Raven saw the woman. She was, in a word, gorgeous. She could see some of Terra in her appearance, but enough to cleanly separate the two.

Raven stared into space for a minute, thinking on how things could have gone. _Dammit, Beast Boy, why couldn't you have told me before I left?_

"This is your captain speaking. We'll be descending into the upper atmosphere momentarily, so please put your trays in the upright- Oww!"

"Can it, Tin man, and bring us down."

- - - oOo - - -

A/N: Yes, I did just reference a minor JLU character. Now, she had no speaking lines in the series, but she does in the comics! It's actually funner than one would think, combing the DC comics archive for characters. Hell, it's almost as much fun as creating OCs (and it's probably better in the long run, as well!)


	10. Part X

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

Raven watched the vast whiteness flow by the window as they descended through the clouds and smiled sadly. _Fitting that my first view of what-could-have-been is going to be in such a dreary place._

"Arriving at the landing co-ordinates... now." The occupants of the craft barely felt the tell tale bump as the Javelin finally touched down. Cyborg was up nearly before the door finished opening, tapping on a panel inset into his arm. "Team, we've got a short hike before we hit the rendez-vous. Jinx, you guard the bird here and stay in radio contact. Raven, you're with-"

"Now hold on, Vic. You've never told me what to do, and you're not going to start now." Jinx held her hand up to Cyborg's lips, stifling his protests. "Now, we're safe here. This is neutral ground, so there's no need for me to guard the 'bird' here. Secondly, I am perfectly aware that I'm pregnant, so you don't need to be worried about me taking stupid risks or trying to take out a supervillain - _which there won't be any here anyways._ Finally, it's been years since I've seen the kid. Don't you think that I want to see him for myself?"

He held up a hand to argue for a second before he cocked his head, and then deflated. "Fine. You can come. But we're dropping you off either in Jump or the Watchtower before we hunt down Rouge and the Brotherhood, okay?" Not even waiting to listen to her answer, he turned and raised his arm before he walked out. Jinx exchanged a look with Raven before hurrying off after her husband.

_I wonder how changed he'll really be. There wasn't really any real sort of scale in the League video, considering that I have no idea how tall Green Lantern and Hawkgirl are. I last saw him as a teen of eighteen, barely taller than I am._

"Alright guys, we're here." Raven looked around to the clearing that Cyborg was indicating. It wasn't much – a terrace on one of the island chain's mountains, with a couple trees and bushes scattered around. She could see why Cyborg had landed nearly a kilometre away – there wasn't nearly enough room on the mountainside to support their vehicle. Looking over the edge of the terrace, to the east, she fairly imagined that he could see the continent of Africa just beyond the horizon, even though it laid hundreds of kilometres away.

"Took you long enough, Cyborg." Raven turned and saw a figure leap down from the cliff above. _Impressive That cliff's got to be at least thirty feet high, and he doesn't look the worse for landing. _She tried to get a better look at the figure, but she could only see the shaggy hair on top of the figure's head over Cyborg's bulk.

"Man, it's been too long. You should have stuck around this year."

"We can catch up on the way. Are the T-Ship's engines primed? It's no short hop to Canada, you know."

"We retired the T-Ship a while ago, actually. The League hooked us up with a Javelin." Cyborg's sensors picked up a hint of movement; Raven was pulling her hood up and trying to see who was on his other side. With a carefully composed look on his face, he told the stranger that they had a guest that he thought that he'd like to see. "An old... friend, B."

"Dude, I keep telling you. Call me Changeling."

"Nah, you'll always be B to me, man. And now, presenting-"

"I don't believe that introductions are necessary, Cyborg. After all, we're old friends, aren't we Beast Boy?"

Raven pulled back her hood as she looked... up to see the green man's face. Whoa... tall. He's taller than Cyborg now. He was wearing little more than a loose pair of dark pants, but his upper torso was covering in tribal tattooing. She was surprised to note more than a hint of magic emanating from the bold traceries; she'd need to remember to ask him about them later.

"Ra-Ra-Raven?"

"Were you expecting someone else?"

"Bu-Bu-Bu..."

"I know, I'm supposed to be dead. It's a long stor-" Raven's voice was cut off as she was enveloped in a fierce green hug. She'd read passages in her books about how some women compared being held in their lover's arms as hiding behind a wall. Although his weren't quite wall-like, she could easily see that he surpassed Nightwing's muscle tone. She could feel a dampness on her head, and when she looked up, she could see a trickle of tears falling off of Changeling's face.

"You're alive."

.

.

.

.

(No, I'm not going to end it there. Although I _was_ seriously tempted.)

- - - oOo - - -

Raven watched the white sea of clouds pass beneath her as she let her empathy extend to the rear of the Javelin. After the tearful reunion with Beast Boy, Cyborg had gotten her to warm up the ship with Jinx as he brought the changeling back with him. Raven had gratefully accepted, feeling the turmoil rolling off of the green man and his cybernetic friend.

"So, is he everything that you thought that he'd be?"

"Jinx!" Raven tried to hush the other woman "They can hear you!"

"Not if we don't want them to" Jinx remarked, inclining her head to rear of the craft. Raven rolled her eyes and erected a barrier in between them and the men, taking an extra moment to absolutely null anything from crossing, be it odours, sound waves or even air. "Now, Raven, spill."

"He's just so... _big_. I know it's been close to three years for him, but he's even taller than Cyborg now. What in Azar's name happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Truth be told, this is the first time that I've actually _seen _him for years. When he left, he was barely taller than you are now. Vic's caught sight of him once or twice over the years, always around the same time of year, the Doom Patrol's mentioned him a few times, and the League's said something about a pair of its members keeping tabs on him every other week or so, in case they have need of him. Other than that, he's completely dropped off the radar."

"Beast Boy? Off the radar?" Raven shook her head in disbelief. "Not possible. You're talking about the guy who constantly promoted the 'benefits' of tofu merely for the attention." At Jinx's frank look, Raven coloured slightly. "We would occasionally talk, you know. Usually in the middle of the night. He'd wake me up with the violent emotions from his dreams, and we'd sit on the roof and talk. He never told me what the dreams were about, specifically, but I've got a few guesses." _The Beast. Terra. Soto. Who'd guess that he'd have so many things torturing him?_ "He'd tell me mostly about adventures when he was off by himself. He's travelled pretty extensively, you know."

"Hmm. Vic was right."

"What are you talking about?"

"Vic figured that there was something between you two. He didn't know what was, but he knew that it involved the rooftop cameras."

"...There's cameras on the roof?"

"You didn't know? Figures – you're not that handy around electronics. So he was right again, dammit. Now I owe him twenty bucks." At Raven's upraised eyebrow, Jinx laughed. "I bet that Beast Boy knew nothing about electronics, so it must have been you who cleared the tapes, no matter how unlikely. Cyborg said something about BB hacking the Tower systems to find out your birthday, but I didn't believe him. Guess I should have, hmmm?"

Raven let loose an exasperated sigh. "Yes, you should have. There's a lot that he concealed from us. I can feel the guys waiting for us to drop the wall."

"In that case, you never answered my question."

"Excuse me?"

"What _do_ you think of the new BB?"

"He's certainly... different."

"Different? Girl, are you made of ice? That man is smokin'!" She smirked at the blush that crept up Raven's cheeks. "I mean, he's giving Aqualad a run for his money. He's really buffed out. And can you feel his aura? _Rooooowr_. Down, Tiger." Jinx let a smirk creep onto her face. "Literally, if he wanted."

Raven's cheeks were redder than the setting sun leaving the sky. "You can stop now, Jinx."

"Not a chance. Not until you admit that he's hot stuff." Jinx could see the indecision warring across Raven's aura before it turned to acceptance and the petite girl's shoulders fell.

"Alright. You win. I'll admit that I find Beast Boy... attractive. Happy?"

"Like you have no idea. You can drop the wall now, by the way." The men gave the females a curious look, but they waved it off.

"So, B here was telling me some of his time in Africa." Raven didn't need empathy to hear the thinly veiled lie when she heard it, but she decided to let it slide. "And apparently, he's helped train a few heroes on his own from there." Cyborg produced a memory card that he slid into his arm. "Regardless, here's the low-down on what B's collected from Africa, along with some supplementary info from the League."

"The League?"

"Damn straight, Rae." Beast Boy's characteristic grin hadn't seemed to have changed a bit throughout the years, even though Raven could still sense the turmoil brewing behind the disarming smile. "John and Shay hooked me up. They intercepted a probe a while back, and it had the new intel on it."

"John and Shay?"

"Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, Rae. They're pretty cool. John taught me some neat tricks he learned from Oa – remind me to show you sometime."

Cyborg gently angled the ship back towards the earth before he grabbed an handset that looked oddly out of place on the gleaming ship.

"And now landing back in Jump City, California. I ask that you please return your trays and footrests to their stowed and locked positions. It hasn't really grown much since you last visited, B, but I bet that it's a sight for sore eyes now, eh?" Cyborg steered the Javelin through the clouds and down onto the landing pad. "We'll rest up here tonight, and then we'll get going in the morning."

"I need to make a call – I'll see you guys in the morning." Beast Boy shifted into a sparrow and flew down the hatch and out into a corridor.

- - - oOo - - -

Cyborg called up the Tower computer as he entered his apartment. "JARVIS, can you trace Changeling's call? I wanna know what's going on."

"Master Stone, it would be highly improper. One would assume that since he retired for the night, the call is private."

"Ya damn hunk of metal, I didn't build you to be sassy. Now trace that call. Override privacy protocols, Authorisation Stone Pi one one zero."

"Authorisation accepted. Attempting trace..."

Cyborg tapped his foot impatiently. Whoever Changeling was calling, they had given him some sweet tech. JARVIS could usually trace any call within a matter of heartbeats.

"Sir, I cannot trace the exact destination of the call. However, I can confirm that the signal leaves the atmosphere and does _not_ jump back to earth."

"...Not back to Earth, eh? He must be calling the Watchtower. Likely Hawkgirl or GL. I wonder what's going on. JARVIS..." Cyborg trailed off. Did he really want to intrude more and try and spy on the call? On the one hand, it could give him insight into this new Beast Boy. On the other, Red Tornado or Mr. Terrific would likely catch him snooping around on their comm signals and give him a lecture. Again.

"Sir?"

"Never mind, JARVIS. I'll just ask the grass stain later."

- - - oOo - - -

Raven stood outside the small room set aside for Beast Boy in the Tower. Although he had resigned his commission, Cyborg had set aside a small room for him in case he ever decided to visit. It was, ironically enough, his old room. The irony of her standing outside his door, unable to summon the will to knock, didn't escape her. How many times over the years had he been the one outside her door, emotions awhirl with trepidation and nervousness, willing himself to do the same act the she couldn't now. Summoning a deep breath, she reached forward and knocked on the door.

The sound of her knuckles hitting the solid steel thundered through the silent corridors like an explosion. A half dozen heartbeats passed before she could hear Beast Boy shuffling towards the door. The door opened and his shadow loomed over her. She coloured slightly as she realised that she didn't even reach his collarbone.

"What can I do for ya, Raven?"

"Uh..." Raven felt the colour rising in her cheeks again. What was it about him that could do this to her?

"Rae?"

She cursed silently. What had she come here to ask him about again? _Quick, think of something... anything._

"I noticed traces of magic emanating from your tribal markings, but their origin wasn't familiar to me. I was hoping that you could elaborate for me."

The green man's cocked back for a sec before he let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his neck. "Ummm, Rae? I kinda lost my Raven to English dictionary when I left for Africa. Care to translate?"

"Your tattoos. They're magic, but not anything that I recognise."

"Oh..." he traced a line running up his arm. A light from Changeling's room shone from behind him, and she could make out some of the markings. He seemed to be tracing a stylized weasel-type creature. "It's... a long story, Raven, and we have a big day tomorrow. Can I get a rain check on that?"

She nodded and held up her hand, but was surprised at what came out. "Are you sure that I can't convince you to tell me tonight? You know how I am with unsolved mysteries; if you don't tell me, I'm going to be up all night anyways trying to figure it out."

"...You got me again, Raven. Come on in. I've just got to finish up this call. You don't mind, do ya?" Without waiting for a reply, he slipped back into the room, leaving the door open for the sorceress as he headed back to the console sitting at the desk. "Alright, Big J, something's come up. Catch ya later?"

"_That is acceptable, Changeling. Do you still wish to attend your Thursday lesson? I sense that there is something that you are not telling me."_

"I'll... get back to you 'bout Thursday, alright? I told you that the Brotherhood is back, so I might be busy then. Just be sure to pass along my message, alright?"

"It shall be done. Watchtower out."

Raven stared at her former teammate with no small amount of shock. "Was that... the Martian Manhunter? And did you just call him _Big J_?"

"Yeah, J'onn's a pretty cool guy once you get past the stony face. A lot like you, Rae. He's been helping me with some of my powers. See?" He grinned, and before her eyes, she could see his teeth deforming as they sharpened and moved forward for the three extra rows of razor sharp teeth growing in behind them. A second later, they turned back into the familiar human teeth with the sharp canines. "He's been helping me control my shapeshifting ability so I only change one specific trait. Like the shark teeth."

Raven was astounded. Not only was he playing with his powers in a way that she doubted any of the team had even thought of, but he was on friendly speaking terms with nearly half of the Founding Members of the Justice League.

"So, what did you want to know about my tattoos? Only a few questions, then I should really be getting to bed. Gotta sleep off today's jet lag, plus there's going to be a big fight tomorrow."

She pursed her lips. _Only a few questions? Alright, I can do that._ "When did you get them?"

"I got them not too long after I got to Africa."

"..." Raven waited for her companion to continue. As he showed no sign of continuing (and kept flashing her that damned _smirk_), she glared at him.

"What, you want more than that?" He grinned cheekily. "That'll cost ya another question."

"Fine. How did you get them?"

"That's a bit more complex. Truth is, I don't really know myself."

Raven quirked her eyebrow.

"Heh. Lemme explain what I mean..."

- - - oOo - - -

...and that's pretty much the end of my buffer – now, should I post chapters as they come, or take a month-long hiatus and resume regular updates after that?

Of course, I wouldn't leave you guys in the lurch for that long – I have some minor stuff that I could post during the interim. Anybody interested?

As for the buffer disappearing... blame the people who got me the entire series of Witchblade, Firefly (INCLUDING the Big Damn Movie) and Chicago Code. Thanks, _mei mei_. (For those of you who don't speak Firefly, that's little sister)


	11. Part XI

**Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days**

_Africa, eighteen months beforehand_

Beast Boy sighed as he felt the plane land. After his argument with Robin, he'd just flown to the west, trying to fly away from the hurt and the pain. How could Robin think that of him?

_Alpha weak... Pack needs new Alpha. Challenge..._

He looked and was horrified to see that claws had extended from his fingers and dug into the luggage that he'd been napping on. After Raven had... disappeared, the Beast had been getting more and more vocal, and the last three months had been the worse. In between the Beast and Robin, he was mentally and emotionally drained nearly all the time.

Beast Boy had decided that the only course of action was to head back to Africa. There, just maybe, he could learn how to tame the Beast inside of him and maybe even deal with Raven's vanishing. He bit down a quick curse as the cargo bay doors suddenly unlocked. Shifting into a mouse, the emerald rodent quietly slipped into a nearby cardboard box and waited for the men to unload it.

He could faintly hear the men talking, and the language was familiar, if distorted. After a few minutes of listening, he could recognise the language as Swahili, a language that he'd learnt in his childhood. He continued to listen as they unloaded the rest of the plane until they finally arrived at his box – he'd mostly remembered the language and while he was by no means fluent, he could remember enough to get by on.

The men handling the cargo, Beast Boy discovered, were talking about one of their great loves. Women. He waited until they were off the tarmac and into the hanger before he scurried out and hid behind a work bench. He managed to hold on until the workers left before he shifted back to human and cried.

_Raven... what happened to you? I _know _that you're not dead... I just know it in my heart. Dammit Rae, I _love you_._

Beast Boy abruptly sat up and wiped away his tears. I_... I love her? I know that I've got a thing for her, but do I really __**love**__ her?_

- - - oOo - - -

"So wait, why were you crying?" Raven held her hand up, pausing his retelling.

"I was... sad that I'd miss the release of Monkey Ninjas VII: Assault on Banana Temple. Yeah, that's it."

Raven _looked_ at him. "I'm an empath, Bea-Changeling. That means that I can tell when you're actively trying to deceive me." He just continued grinning that same smirk, the one that she'd learnt over the years to mean that he was hiding something.

"You know, I don't mind if you call me Beast Boy. Or you can call me Garfield. That's my name, you know. Mind if I finish now?"

- - - oOo - - -

_Three days later..._

Beast Boy flew over the African jungle in the body of an Egyptian Eagle. He'd always found the body comfortable – it had been one of the first forms that he'd ever taken, at his mother's request. He caught a thermal and felt his spirit soar with him as he flew along a river's path. He had seen the river nearly a day ago and had recognized it instantly. The Mkata River eventually ran right beside a village called Upper Lamumba. Beast Boy allowed his thoughts to drift as he followed the thin ribbon of blue far below...

Although he had been born in the United States, he had always considered Africa his homeland. His earliest memories were of running through the village with the other boys, and the fuzzy figure of his father reading to him at night. Of King Tawaba and the other villagers.

He landed in the village to find it relatively untouched by time. After talking to the new king for an hour or so, he was told to see the shaman.

"So old Akada is still alive? He was old when I was still here."

"He is, Green One. He said that he had a vision of you returning two months ago, and that you were to see him as soon as you got here."

_How could he have possibly known that I was going to come here? I didn't know that I was coming here until a few days ago._

- - - oOo - - -

Beast Boy walked into the grove. It, much like the village, had remained untouched by the hand of time. There was a bend of the river on the far edge, and a hut propped against a large black stinkwood. He slowly walked farther into the glade, slowly rotating and observing the entire area.

"Boy! Come here!"

He turned to see an old, wizened man hobble out from the darkness of the hut. The skull of a lion decorated his skull and its mane and hide descended down his neck and back. He leaned heavily on a dark wooden staff, and beckoned the changeling with his free hand.

"Master Akada, it is a surprise to see you still with us."

"The spirits haven't taken me yet, boy. They've set me out a task for you before I go and join them. You, changeling, must go on a vision quest."

"A what?"

"Did you forget everything that I taught you, pup?"

"...It has been more than a decade since I saw you last, you know."

Beast Boy cringed as the old man swept his cane through the air, narrowly missing his head. "Pah! Time is in the eye of the beholder! You must visit the sacred lodge of your spiritual ancestors and mediate on their demands. Now, go! The sooner you go, the sooner the spirits will let these old bones sleep."

Beast Boy found himself shoved out of the grove by the old man. When he turned to protest, the cane smacked him on top of his head.

"I said go!" As the man hobbled away, the green changeling could have sworn that he heard him muttering something about bananas. As he started back into the woods, he stopped and groaned.

"What the heck did he mean by _spiritual_ ancestors?"

- - - oOo - - -

The hot air blew across the sun soaked savannah. Beast Boy had flown the dozen kilometres necessary to clear the jungle and find open land. Akada had mentioned a vision quest, and from what he could remember of those long-ago teachings, he remembered one vital thing: you had to follow your heart. Ignore your mind, because it was cluttered with human thoughts and distractions. Only the purity of your heart, your animal instincts, could lead you.

He knew that going to... that waterfall wouldn't help him, because the old shaman had specifically mentioned his _spiritual_ ancestors. He figured that that meant not his actual parents.

_Okay, so this is some sort of spiritual mumbo jumbo. What would Raven do? Spiritual has something to do with the spirit of the thing, so who could my spiritual ancestors be?_

Without realising it, Beast Boy had started humming a familiar song. It was a song from a Disney movie that he'd seen with Star not long after they formed the team. One of the character's words floated unheeded from his mouth.

"When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life."

He slapped himself on the forehead. "Of course! That's it! I've got to think less literally! What would Qui Gon Kenobi from Clash of the Planets say? Probably something like... 'We are not only the descendants of those whose blood came before us, but whose ideals we follow'. Pffft. How does that help?" He hesitated a minute before taking off to the air again. _Let's see... the nearest town with a phone is only a few dozen miles north east of here. I know someone who can help..._

- - - oOo - - -

Larry groaned as he lifted his head from the counter. Insomnia was an old friend of his, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. He grimaced as he saw the coffee soaking into his bandaged hands. Ever since the accident, he been forced to... live like this. It was rare that he actually considered his continued existence truly living – after all, what defined life? He had no need for food, nor air, though he could eat.

Worse yet, his _soul_, so to speak, could literally fly free from his body. He'd begun to feel better about that after meeting Beast Boy's friend from the Titans, Raven. They'd shared more than one conversation over the many months that they'd known each other before she'd vanished talking about their soul selves.

His attention was torn away from his private musings by the ringing of the telephone. He instantly went to the communication station and automatically started the tracing program before he realised that the phone was still ringing.

Not the comm system – the _telephone_. The number that very, very few people knew, let alone knew even existed. Fumbling with the controls, a hidden panel on the wall slid back and revealed the phone.

"Hello?..."

"Larry." He heard a note of satisfaction in the caller's strangely familiar voice.

"Kid? Is that you?"

"Good to see that you can still recognise my voice. Anyone else around?"

"Beast Boy, don't you know that it's five in the morning? I know that it's 'only' two in the morning over there on the west coast, but it's god-awful early."

"...I'm not in the US anymore, Larry. I left the Titans."

"What! Hold on, let me wake the Patrol."

"No, you really don't need to-" The emerald teen's voice was cut off by the klaxon of the Patrol's alarm. "...Never mind, Larry."

"Negative Man! Report!" Mento yelled as he hurried into the main room, taking his helmet out from under his arm and securing it in place. "What's the situation?"

"Steve, calm down." Rita laid a hand on her husband's arm. She was dressed considerably more cavalier, only in a dressing gown and robe. Cliff trundled in a heartbeat after, quirking a metallic eyebrow at the dead main screen.

"Guys, it's Beast Boy."

"Oh." Mento deflated, mentally stepping down from the role of leader and trying to step into his reluctant role as step-father.

"What's happened to Garfield?" Rita, on the other hand, instantly became more tense as her hands gripped Mento's arm.

"He's left the Titans."

"What? No way the little guy would ditch his buddies like that!" Cliff slammed his fists down on the table, denting the reinforced surface with little effort. "Tell me that you're joking."

Larry laid a sympathetic hand on Cliff's shoulder. The big man had always had a fondness for the kid bordering on near-paternal. "He's still on the line, Cliff. Tossing him on the speakers... now."

"Speakers?"

"Oh yeah, he called the land line, Mento. Forgot to mention that."

"I left my Doom Patrol communicator in the Tower before I left, Mento. Couldn't risk the Titans tracking me."

"Couldn't... boy, what on earth have you gotten yourself into?"

"Look, can we not talk about this now? I needed help with a problem, but now I'm thinking that I called the wrong people."

"No, we cannot talk about this later. What on earth compelled you to leave the Titans? I'd offer you a spot here, but how do I know that you wouldn't abandon us again?"

"Steve, enough! Can't you see that he's hurting?"

"Look, Rita, thanks but it was a bad idea to call. I'll be in touch, okay? Love you guys."

The Patrol stared in horror at the suddenly dead phone. Mento picked up the same thoughts from every member; _What the hell was that?_

- - - oOo - - -

Beast Boy sighed as he hung up the simple phone in the police station. "_Asante, afia_" he nodded to the officer on duty, a young looking man. The man held out the titanium belt that he'd demanded in trust in exchange for using the phone. Beast Boy grabbed it from the man and quickly belted it on as he saw the man try and surreptitiously wipe his hands on his pants. With a low growl that startled the officer, he stormed out of the station and took a half dozen steps before launching himself into the air and shifting into a eagle, flying away into the sky as random citizens made the sign of the cross on their chests.

_Ignore them, Gar. You know as well as anyone that people fear what they don't understand. It's not the first time that you've dealt with it, and you know that it's not going to be the last. Just... fly away, and leave your concerns on the ground. _

Beast Boy never let slip to the other Titan boys how bad he felt for them, not being able to experience flight. With a mighty cry, he folded his wings and saw the earth rushing up to meet him. A heartbeat before impact, he shifted into a hummingbird, relishing in the split second of agony that accompanied every shift. Hovering barely a foot above the earth, he dropped in his natural form and began to run in the savannah.

_Alright, the Doom Patrol was no help. I should have known that Mento would go mental about me leaving the Titans... heh, mental Mento. Focus. So, if they can't help you, and you can't turn to the Titans for help, who can you turn to?_

As he reached a stream, he seamlessly shifted into cuckoo form as he cleared the river, assuming the form of an antelope as he touched back to ground.

_Wait, cuckoo, that's it!_ He stopped abruptly, shifted back to human then slammed his palm into his forehead. "Of course that's what he was going on about! They might not be my parents, but who, or, rather, _what_ are the parents of all the animals inside me?" He laughed as he spun around in a circle before falling to the ground. "Mother Earth. All animals evolved on you, from the lowliest toad to the mighty T. Rex. So where would your 'heart' be? I can't go to the centre of the earth, obviously, so I have to think less literally. Akada said something about the Heart of Africa, years ago. What did he say?"

Remember boy, though she is a continent, our mother Africa is as alive as you or I. The rivers; her blood, the mountains; her bones, and the savannah her soul. But her heart boy... her heart is Lake Victoria.

"Lake Victoria! That's it! I've got to go there. Fastest way would be catching a shuttle bus, but I don't exactly have any of the local cash... or any money, for that matter. Guess we're going for another green-tinted discount." He shifted into a sparrow and flew back towards the town that he'd just departed, heading for the bus depot.

- - - oOo - - -

Nearly ten hours later, a green snake uncoiled itself from its resting place in the spare tire. Ignoring the startled shrieks, he slithered away into the nearby ditch before shifting into a green hawk again and flying out of the ditch and towards the lake.

Even at this distance, the lake was stunning. Subconsciously partitioning off the flight centre of his brain, he just took in the beauty of the clear blue waves. _Rae would have loved this..._ Shaking off the thought, he felt himself... pulled towards the western shore. As he approached, his superior avian eyes spotted an odd discoloration in one of the cliff faces, the one that he was drawn to. Following the odd pull, he flew down to it before shifting to a gecko and climbing over the sheer surface towards it.

No-one was more surprised than Beast Boy when his foot sank straight through the discoloration. Curious, he popped his head through the illusion. Finding himself in a small cavern, he shifted back to human form and took stock of his situation.

"Alright Beast Boy, let's see; you've left the Titans, returned home to Africa, gone on a crazy vision quest-thingy that lead you to a creepy secret cave in a cliff face. What's the worst that could possibly happen?"

As he'd been ranting, a soft greenish glow had been creeping up the walls from the ground, forming abstract pictographs of various animals from around the world, both prehistoric and current. He finally noticed the tracings as they came to a head directly in front of him, quickly tracing out a humanoid figure.

"Uh oh... that's _me_, isn't it?"

The eyes of the drawing suddenly opened, flashing a pure green light. As Beast Boy blinked the glare from his eyes, he noticed the pictographs beginning to move in a slow circle around him.

"Yup, definitely big trouble now. Way to go, Beast Boy."

The pictures started moving faster and faster, until they became a blur, then a solid cylinder of green surrounding him. Then a vaguely human-shaped... thing emerged from the wall. Lacking features of any sort, its form was only defined by a series of pictographs molded around its shape.

-_Garfield Mark Logan... Welcome to the Heart._-

- - - oOo - - -

A/N: Welp, nothing can be said of this. At least it wasn't as long as the title, eh? My interest in the TT world has been rekindled, so dammit I'm going to finish this story.

For the curious, I imagine Akada sounding near IDENTICAL to Rafiki from the Lion King. It makes the entire thing much more amusing, I find. I've always imagined Beast Boy as having a pretty good relationship with the Doom Patrol (well, Mento is sketchy). It might also be because of Jack Mirembe, but I'm not sure.


End file.
